Difference between pages "Raid Wing 6 - Mythwright Gambit" and "Guide:Introduction to Raiding"

 
 
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{{#seo:
 
{{#seo:
|title=Raid Wing 6: Mythwright Gambit Guide - GW2 - MetaBattle
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|title=Introduction Guide to Raids in GW2 - MetaBattle
|description=Detailed Walkthrough Guide for the Wing 6: Mythwright Gambit Raid in Guild Wars 2.
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|description=This guide aims to be an introduction to raiding in Guild Wars 2. It will cover the various roles that classes will commonly fulfill within a raid, and how these roles were settled on. For new groups, there will be an explanation of how to set up a squad for an encounter and provide some good builds for new players.
 
}}{{Guide
 
}}{{Guide
| title = Raid Wing 6 - Mythwright Gambit
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| title = Introduction to Raiding
| description = Guides for Conjured Amalgamate, Twin Largos, and Qadim.
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| description = Raid fundamentals, roles, group requirements, and team composition.
 
| mode = PvE
 
| mode = PvE
 
| section = Raids
 
| section = Raids
| icon = Mini Qadim.webp
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| icon = Raid Portal.webp
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| featured = Index, PvE
 
}}
 
}}
==Introduction==
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[[File:Raiding BG.webp|Introduction to Raiding|link=|class=img-fluid]]
If there are any terms you don’t recognize in this guide, check out the [https://metabattle.com/wiki/Guide:PvE_Glossary Glossary]!
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==Overview==
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This guide aims to be an introduction to raiding in Guild Wars 2. It will cover the various roles that classes will commonly fulfill within a raid, and how these roles were settled on. For new groups, there will be an explanation of how to set up a squad for an encounter and provide some good builds for new players. If there are unfamiliar terms, the [[Guide:PvE Glossary | glossary]] may be of assistance.
  
For a list of current recommended builds, see the [[Raid_Builds|Build Page]].
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''Disclaimer: This guide is aimed at beginner-intermediate level raiders. The “rules” set out here will often have exceptions, but these exceptions will almost always apply to high-skill groups. In the interest of brevity, these have been omitted under the assumption that groups to which the exceptions would apply will already be aware of them.''
  
  
After dropping into the forge, players will find [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scholar_Glenna Glenna] and [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Zommoros Zommoros] waiting. After signing a lengthy contract, the squad will progress forward and discover the first boss on a platform to the east.  
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==Roles==
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When tackling raid encounters, one of the key ingredients to a successful kill is having an effective team composition. Like many RPGs, Guild Wars 2 features distinct roles similar to the “Holy Trinity”. However, Guild Wars 2 differs slightly in that it features a soft trinity of [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Damage Damage], [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Support Support] and [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Control Control]. These map onto the traditional roles of DPS, Healing, and Tanking, but with some additional functions.
  
Players can safely land on the edge of the platform, but going any further will begin the encounter.
 
  
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===Damage===
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Deals damage. Damage (or DPS) is ultimately the most important, and focused role within a raid and the majority of actions of Support and Control players will be aimed at enabling the DPS players to do their job. The design of attributes in Guild Wars 2 is such that damage roles will focus on either power or condition damage. The two types differentiate themselves as follows (with some exceptions):
  
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:''Power'' - bursts damage in a short duration and hence suits fights with short phases. A few bosses also have low toughness, which strongly benefits power builds.
  
==Conjured Amalgamate==
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:''Condition'' - takes some time to ramp up their damage, but deals more long-term and so are suited to fights with longer phases. Some condition builds apply {{Tooltip|Confusion}} or {{Tooltip|Torment}}, which deal extra damage when the target activates skills or stands still. Builds that inflict these conditions are able to deal damage very quickly on suitable bosses.
Players will be unable to damage the boss once the fight begins, but soon the Conjured Amalgamate will slam one of its two fists down on the platform.
 
  
 +
The best DPS classes will vary from encounter to encounter and group to group, so there is a lot of variety within this role.
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Pulverize'''</div>
 
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Conjured Amalgamate targets one of the four platform sections and slams a fist into it, knocking players down and dealing very heavy damage. Players in sections other than the targeted one will take heavy damage from Tremor. The arm will remain in place for 10 seconds and may be attacked. After 10 seconds the arm will raise up and the attack will repeat approximately eight seconds later. This attack can be blocked and evaded.
 
</div></div>
 
  
 +
===Support===
 +
Support comes in two main flavors - boon support and healing. These flavors are not mutually exclusive.
  
<span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52173" title="Pulverize" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> will only target sections that players are stood inside, so it is recommended that all players stay in the same section in order to control where the arm appears. Conjured Amalgamate has two arms, each of which will only attack in their respective half of the platform. All conditions are cleared from the arm after every <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52173" title="Pulverize" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, so power DPS classes may be preferable here.
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:''Boon Support'' - provides boons to the squad.
  
A short time after the arm hits the platform, conjures will begin to fall off it. The more damage is done, the more conjures will spawn, and they come in two varieties:
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:''Healing'' - keeps the squad alive.
  
:''Conjured Greatswords'' – Greatswords move around and attack players with <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52933" title="Sword Spin" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>. They have low hitpoints and are susceptible to control effects.
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Support players are often tasked with handling mechanics in fights, as they typically have downtime in which they do not need to be healing or applying boons.
  
:''Conjured Shields'' – Shields are stationary, but are surrounded by <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="53134" title="Frigid Aura" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> which deals a small amount of damage in addition to {{Tooltip|Chilled}} and {{Tooltip|Slow}}. They also return damage to players unless their [https://metabattle.com/wiki/Guide:What_are_CC_and_Breakbars defiance bar] (strength: 200) is broken, upon which they become vulnerable and may be damaged for a short time until they regain the defiance bar.
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As will be discussed in this guide, some supports are significantly more effective than other options, so many groups will run the same core group of supports on most encounters.
  
The first time an arm attacks it will spawn swords, and the second time it attacks it will spawn shields, and then will alternate between the two. Should the two different types of conjure be allowed to get close to one another, they will merge into a third type:
 
  
:''Conjured Warriors'' – Much more dangerous conjures with the abilities of both, and more hitpoints.
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===Control===
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As a role, control usually manifests as the tank. It also refers to [[Guide:What_are_CC_and_Breakbars | control effects]] (CC), and while this is rarely a dedicated role in itself it can inform the optimal builds fulfilling the other roles.
  
When the greatswords and shields die, they leave a green AoE on the ground. If a player steps into this AoE then they are given a [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Special_action_skill Special Action Key] (SAK) according to the summon that left the AoE:
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Tanking in raids is very binary - there will be a single requirement, and whichever player fulfils that requirement will be the tank. It is most common for the tank to be the player with the highest toughness stat, though other encounters have the tanking based on proximity, randomly assigned, use of specific [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Special_action_skill Special Action Keys], or have no tank at all. It is extremely rare that control will be a role in itself, as will be explained below the functions of control are usually handled by Damage or Support players.
  
:''Conjured Greatswords'' – Greatswords provide a skill called [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Conjured_Slash Conjured Slash] that applies a large amount of damage across a rectangular AoE in addition to removing a stack of shielding and applying a debuff called [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractured_(effect) Fractured] that increases damage taken by the target. Removing a stack of shielding will consume a stack of Conjured Slash, so less fractured will be applied in this case. The damage applied by this skill is not affected by stats or modifiers, so any class can pick it up. The buff and SAK last for 30 seconds after picking them up.
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As such, the role of tank will usually be assigned to the most suitable class of those the squad has already taken to the encounter.
  
:''Conjured Shields'' – Shields provide a skill called [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Conjured_Protection Conjured Protection] that drops a moderate-sized AoE under the player when activated that reduces incoming damage to any player stood inside it by 10%, as well as preventing conjures from crossing the barrier. AoEs from multiple sources stack as long as the player is standing within them all. The buff and SAK last for 60 seconds after picking them up.
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A ''kiter'' may be considered a sub-role of tank. Rather than control the boss’s aggro, they will typically be the target of a particular mechanic, though the exact requirements of the role vary greatly depending on the encounter.
  
Players can pick up multiples of the same conjure, and the stacks a player has is indicated by the [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Greatsword_Power_(effect) Greatsword Power] and [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Conjured_Shield_(effect) Conjured Shield] buffs, up to a maximum of 10. A player with one type of special action key cannot pick up the other. The effects of these buffs stack linearly, so if a player with 10 stacks of Conjured Shield uses Conjured Protection it will provide 100% damage reduction to players inside the AoE.
 
  
  
===Strategy===
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==Role Fundamentals==
As the encounter begins, players should attack the arm once it hits the platform. Once the Conjured Amalgamate raises the arm, the squad should ensure that the Conjured Greatswords have all been killed before the arm hits a second time and begins to spawn Conjured Shields. It can be helpful to use [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pull pulls] to move the greatswords into the arm so that they are cleaved down easily.
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This section covers two fundamental goals that define how the previously described roles are best covered. While the two goals may seem contradictory, both must be considered when defining builds or compositions.
  
Once the arm lands a second time, players can use the Conjured Slash SAK on the arm to significantly increase the damage done to it the second time. Players should also be wary as the Conjured Shields will appear with their shields active, which can very easily down a player if they accidentally cleave it. It may be advisable for players to hold on to Conjured Slash until shields have spawned, as the attack will instantly kill them and it is very easy to aim so as to hit both the arm and the shields. Otherwise, shields should be [https://metabattle.com/wiki/Guide:What_are_CC_and_Breakbars CC’d] quickly in order to enable players to DPS the arm safely.
 
  
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===Role Specialization===
 +
One of the biggest stumbling blocks when moving from open world to raids is the need to unlearn much of what Guild Wars 2 teaches players while leveling: That classes are built to be self-sufficient, and able to perform all three roles at once.
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Thunderclap'''</div>
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Team-based game modes such as raids promote role specialization (particularly in DPS players), as focusing on one particular role will be much more effective than multiple players all trying to fill multiple roles.
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After Conjured Amalgamate has used <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52173" title="Pulverize" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> three times (with any combination of arms), it will throw its arms wide and slam them together dealing extreme damage across the entire arena. The only way to mitigate this damage is with Conjured Protection or effects such as {{Skill|"Rebound!"}}, and the attack will only occur if both arms are intact.
 
</div></div>
 
  
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Put clearly - a player on a damage role is there to deal damage. Sacrificing that damage to improve personal healing or survivability lowers the effectiveness of the entire group, as the lower the damage, the longer the boss will take to kill. The longer the boss is alive, the more mechanics will occur that have the chance to cause a wipe. With Guild Wars 2’s active defense there are practically no mechanics that cannot be avoided with skill, mitigated through encounter mechanics, or out-healed by healers.
  
Because of <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52843" title="Thunderclap" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, players that pick up the shield SAK should ensure that they hold on to it for this mechanic. If the squad is sure that they will be able to destroy the arm within three uses of <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52173" title="Pulverize" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> then they need not reserve Conjured Protection, and can use it to protect themselves in the event that a warrior spawns. After <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52843" title="Thunderclap" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, the arms will resume the greatsword-shield spawning pattern where they left off. If the squad does not have sufficient stacks of Shield Protection, then it is still possible to recover from this attack with the use of delayed-[https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Revival revive] skills such as {{Skill|Spirit of Nature}} or {{Skill|Battle Standard}}.
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Team members must be trusted to fulfill their roles, and not plan for failure by pre-emptively covering for others' mistakes. Adjusting a build to be less specialized should be a reaction to failure rather than in anticipation of it.
  
 +
This is the reason why it is often recommended to run a “meta” build. These builds are optimized to perform their roles in the most effective ways possible. In cases where builds have options to fulfill other roles as well, this will have been chosen such that it has the minimum impact on their primary role, with the maximum gain of the supplementary role.
  
<big>'''Junk Absorption'''</big>
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As previously stated, of the three roles damage is the most common to focus utterly on just one role.
  
Once an arm is destroyed, Conjured Amalgamate will lose 10% of its health, become targetable, lift up its remaining arm, and colored orbs will begin to fly in from the edge of the arena towards the boss. The purple orbs deal a moderate amount of damage to players they hit, and green orbs provide players with stacks of Greatsword Power or Conjured Shield along with their corresponding SAK’s. The two types of green orb are visually distinct: greatsword orbs have a white vertical line through them, and shield orbs have a white aura. Should any of these orbs reach the Conjured Amalgamate, then it will gain the corresponding buff (this means that the more greatsword orbs it absorbs the more stacks of Conjured Shield will be needed to defend against its attacks). The increased damage from absorbing a greatsword orb is dangerous enough, but should it absorb a shield orb it can quickly wipe the party as it will begin to return a proportion of damage back to players. When Conjured Amalgamate gains a stack of Shield Power, a large shield appears in front of the boss so if plays see this they should stop dealing damage. The shield can be removed with Conjured Slash.
 
  
There are 15 of each type of green orb, and they appear in a staggered pattern with greatsword orbs starting at the northern end of the arena and shield orbs starting at the southern end. Once orbs have spawned along the length of the arena, the direction of the spawn locations will reverse. It would thus be possible for a single player to pick up all 15 of a single type of orb, but due to the 10-stack limit it is common to have two players assigned to each of the orb types (four players in total) and have the first player pick up 10 orbs, then have the second player pick up the remaining five.  
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===Role Compression===
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Where damage is concerned, more is always better. With support, however, a build can provide more healing or boons than is necessary. Where this is the case, supports will often partially fill other roles, though their priority should always be the primary role.
  
Players picking up shield orbs will want to hold on to them for the time being, but players picking up greatsword orbs should use them on the boss as soon as possible, so as to apply the fractured debuff to Conjured Amalgamate. Using the SAK roots the player for a moment but it is possible for a single player to pick up all 15 greatswords by continually using them until the boss has 10 stacks of fractured, then using the SAK again if they run out (moving quickly after using the SAK will cancel the aftercast of the skill while still hitting with it). This may even be slightly preferable, as the fractured debuff increases the damage applied by Conjured Slash, so using it as frequently as possible will maximise the damage dealt. Conjured Slash should also be used on Conjured Amalgamate if it ever gains the Conjured Shield buff. Players should be aware that the spawn locations of the orbs are slightly inconsistent but they will always spawn in roughly the same area/pattern.
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A good approach to support builds (and team compositions in general) is: “As offensive as possible, as defensive as necessary”.
  
While it would also be possible to have all players spread out and pick up green orbs, it will be difficult to effectively communicate how to use the SAK’s best and could easily result in too many or too few being used. Players who are not collecting orbs should instead ensure that there are no living conjures and then focus on damaging the boss. There is a spot just to the south of the central platform divide that most of the purple orbs will miss, so it might be advisable to stack there.
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Tanking is almost always a “compressed” role. Many classes in Guild Wars 2 come with sufficient active defense to survive as tank (aided by healers) without the need to build for survivability at all, and so the tank role will be fulfilled by a damage or support (typically a support).
  
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Junk Torrent'''</div>
 
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Approximately 20 seconds after the start of Junk Absorption, Conjured Amalgamate will eject the absorbed junk in a torrent that sweeps from the side of the most recently destroyed arm across the entirety of the arena. The torrent deals extreme damage and makes the ground it passes over deal heavy damage to players stood on it for approximately 10 seconds afterwards. The only way to survive is to use Conjured Protection. If both arms are destroyed, the torrent will sweep across the arena a second time in the opposite direction.
 
</div></div>
 
  
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==Group Requirements==
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Aside from the specific requirements required for each encounter, there are a number of common effects that groups should seek to provide on (nearly) every encounter.
  
For the first Junk Absorption phase the squad can simply stack in the center of the arena and have the player with 10 stacks of Conjured Shield use Conjured Protection just before the torrent reaches them. It will last for long enough for the torrent to pass, though players may need to move slightly to avoid taking damage from <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52161" title="Ruptured Ground" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>. In burn phases where both arms are destroyed, the squad will need to move to the end of the arena opposite to the last arm killed as this is the only location where a single use of Conjured Protection will persist through both sweeps. Conjured Amalgamate can be hit from any section of the platform so players need not worry about their positioning, though the targeting on some skills can be unpredictable. After Junk Torrent, Conjured Amalgamate will collapse forward for a moment before straightening back up, but this has no mechanical effect so player should continue to damage the boss until it is no longer targetable. Note that targeting will be temporarily broken as Conjured Amalgamate slumps forward, so players should continue attacking at this point. For the first Junk Absorption phase the Conjured Amalgamate cannot be damaged below 50% health, and Junk Torrent will end early if this threshold is reached.
 
  
Following Junk Absorption, Conjured Amalgamate will continue to slam down its remaining arm, and the squad should deal with it in the same manner as before.
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===Essential Boons===
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One of the key support aspects that every group should fulfill is providing certain essential boons. These boons are considered essential because of the huge damage increase each provides - if a class could provide just one of these boons to the group it would be worth taking instead of a DPS player even if it did literally nothing else. In practice though, most boon supports can provide multiple boons.
  
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:{{Tooltip|Might}} - Might provides a massive damage boost to both power and condition damage builds.
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Junk Fall'''</div>
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:{{Tooltip|Quickness}} - Quickness speeds up (almost) all actions in the game, allowing players to get more skills into a smaller window of time. This is of huge benefit to all players.
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If the Conjured Amalgamate has only one arm, after it has used Pulverize two times it will scoop up junk from the platform and eat it. This has no effect by itself, but will cause multiple AoEs across the platform that deal moderate damage and removes all stacks of the conjure buffs. Junk Fall will also be used in the final phase regardless of the number of arms remaining.  
 
</div></div>
 
  
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:{{Tooltip|Alacrity}} - Lowers the cooldown of all skills. Similar to quickness, this allows more skills to be activated within a smaller window of time and is of huge benefit to all players.
  
Once the second arm is destroyed, the Junk Absorption phase will repeat. Players should recall that the Junk Torrent will sweep across the platform a second time but otherwise the phase is identical to the first. For the second Junk Absorption phase, the Conjured Amalgamate cannot be damaged below 25% health, and Junk Torrent will end early if this threshold is reached. As this phase requires much less damage to take the Conjured Amalgamate to the next health threshold, the squad may not need all 15 stacks of Conjured Slash in order to complete it. If this is the case, then the remaining uses can be saved for the next phase instead.
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:{{Tooltip|Fury}} - Increases the chance to critically hit by 20%. Almost every power build will require fury to reach 100% crit chance. In addition to the damage boost, many builds have on-crit effects that form part of their rotation and it is especially important to those builds. Even condition damage builds frequently have on-crit effects that make the boon very strong.
  
Following the second use of Junk Absorption, Conjured Amalgamate will regrow both its arms and use <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52843" title="Thunderclap" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, so all remaining stacks of Conjured Protection should be used to survive it. Conjured Amalgamate will then use <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52173" title="Pulverise" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> with one arm, and <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51735" title="Junk Fall" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> with the other. Both arms now only have 50% health, and the squad should stack on one arm and destroy it (if players have any stacks of Conjured Slash left from the Junk Absorption phase they can be used here).  
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<blockquote>
 +
====A note on boon strip====
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At the start of a raid encounter, support classes should begin providing their essential buffs as soon as possible. However, all boons will be removed from players shortly after the encounter begins (varies from encounter to encounter, but usually within three seconds). This means that players providing boons need to wait until after this boon strip occurs before they begin.
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</blockquote>
  
Destroying either arm will trigger another phase of Junk Absorption, but this phase will be complicated by the presence of the remaining arm and conjures – players picking up green orbs will need to particularly careful of the shields and their <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="53134" title="Frigid Aura" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>. The squad can either ignore the second arm and attempt to kill the boss before it becomes a problem, or alternate between the two arms and kill them at roughly the same time in order to remove the threat.
 
  
If taking the former approach, it might be safer to stack at the north or south end of the platform as this will create the most space between the arm and the squad. Players should also ensure that they do not damage the second arm, as doing so will cause additional conjures to spawn. Be aware that if stacking at one end of the platform, the Junk Torrent start close to the squad’s location so the player(s) with Conjured Protection should be ready.  
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===Additional Buffs===
 +
====Non-essential boons====
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The above boons are essential for every damage class, and should always be provided. Some builds rely on additional boons, and these should be provided when you have such builds. Generally, some amount of these boons will be provided by the class in question, but the higher uptime the better.
  
Otherwise the phase will continue as before, and the Conjured Amalgamate can finally be defeated. If the boss is not killed in this burn phase, it will once more regrow its arms and use <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52843" title="Thunderclap" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>.
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:{{Tooltip|Swiftness}} - Swiftness provides a damage boost to both power Weaver and Warriors using the Discipline traitline (both core and elite specializations).
  
 +
:{{Tooltip|Vigor}} - Vigor provides bonus condition damage to Mirage and increases the damage potential of both Daredevil and Mirage as their rotations involve frequent dodging.
  
 +
:{{Tooltip|Resolution}} - Power guardian builds (and elite specializations) gain multiple benefits from having Resolution.
  
==Sorting and Appraisal==
+
:{{Tooltip|Regeneration}} - Mesmer builds that use the Chaos traitline gain multiple benefits from having Regeneration.
Following the destruction of the Conjured Amalgamate, the squad can progress through a [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sand_Portal Sand Portal] and witness [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Qadim Qadim] releasing a [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dreg_Shark Dreg Shark] into the Mystic Forge. The shark jumps through a sand portal and [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chief_Sorter_Skitch Chief Sorter Skitch] appears, informing everyone of the havoc the shark is causing. Passing through the sand portal next to Skitch takes players to a second room containing a panicking [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bezzalak Bezzalak]. As before, players should take the sand portal next to the skritt to reach one of two possible encounters.
 
  
  
===Ectoplasm===
+
====Defensive Boons====
Within [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ectoplasmic_Containment Ectoplasmic Containment] is a [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ectoplasmic_Conglomerate Ectoplasmic Conglomerate]. Destroying it will cause it to split into four [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ectoplasmic_Mass Ectoplasmic Masses] that spread out around the room. Three will use a defensive form, reflecting damage and resisting damage, while the fourth will repeatedly bounce, dealing damage in the area until its [https://metabattle.com/wiki/Guide:What_are_CC_and_Breakbars defiance bar] is broken. The Mass to the south-east will be the first to use this attack, and after a time the next Mass clockwise will start bouncing and the previous one will defend. Killing the bouncing Mass will cause it to split into multiple [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ectoplasmic_Blob Ectoplasmic Blobs] that are relatively harmless and can quickly be cleaved down. Once all Ectoplasms are dead, the squad may move forward.
+
In addition to the above boons, there are a few that can be very useful in the right situations. Aegis and Stability in particular are still somewhat rare, so their presence in a build can be very potent.
  
 +
:{{tooltip|Aegis}} - Blocks a single incoming attack. Providing this to your subgroup allows them to ignore certain mechanics that might otherwise require a dodge, which can result in higher damage and/or less chance of death when used at the right time.
  
===Megapets===
+
:{{tooltip|Protection}} - Reduces incoming strike damage by 33%. This is a massive boost to survivability that can easily make the difference between an attack one-shotting a player or not. {{Tooltip|Resolution}} works in a similar way against conditions, but the vast majority of damage will be strike damage.
Alternatively, the squad may find themselves in the [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Miniature-Pet_Menagerie Miniature-Pet Menagerie]. Here they will face one of four giant Mini-pets: [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mega_Chainsaw_the_Skeleton Mega Chainsaw the Skeleton], [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mega_Foostivoo_the_Merry Mega Foostivoo the Merry], [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mega_Maraca_Choya_Pinata Mega Maraca Choya Pinata] or [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mega_Princess_Doll Mega Princess Doll]. Whichever is fought, once it reaches 75% it will gain a barrier that can only be removed by moving it to a specific magic extractor. The correct extractor will be indicated by a beam of light as well as a corresponding buff on the megapet, and the [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skritt_Pet_Handler Skritt Pet Handler] will move to the appropriate location. The megapets are vulnerable to CC and should therefore be forced to the correct extractor. The Choya Pinata is an exception, and will instead gain a defiance bar and circle the room. It must be broken as it passes the extractor in order to remove the barrier.
 
  
This effect will repeat at 50% health, and at 25% health the megapet must instead be forced into the shrinking platform in the center of the room. Once this is done a second megapet will spawn that is dealt with in the same way.
+
:{{tooltip|Stability}} - Works similarly to {{tooltip|Aegis}} in that it allows for the ignoring of some mechanics. While it doesn't prevent damage, you can have multiple stacks on you at once, preventing multiple incoming control effects.
  
  
===Dreg Shark===
+
====Essential conditions====
Whichever event the squad did, they will find a sand portal that takes them back to Zommoros. After progressing through yet another sand portal, the squad will catch up with the Dreg Shark.
+
While many classes benefit from particular conditions being on the target, the only truly essential condition is {{Tooltip|Vulnerability}}. Many builds (particularly power) provide enough {{Tooltip|Vulnerability}} to keep it capped on a boss, but in the event {{Tooltip|Vulnerability}} is not capped some adjustments will be required.  
  
Within a small arena lie four treasure piles and the Dreg Shark will periodically leap between them, scattering treasure across the center of the arena, dealing heavy damage. The shark can only be damaged if a player picks up one of the pots of [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dreg_Shark_Extractor Dreg Shark Extractor] and throws it at the pile the shark is hiding inside. This will cause it to fall into the center of the arena and become vulnerable. The Dreg Shark will have defiance bar, and unless it is broken it will leap back into the treasure piles and resume jumping between them. After breaking, the squad has a window in which to damage the shark and then the shark will knock everyone back and jump back into the treasure. This repeats until the shark is dead. It is possible to pick up some Dreg Shark Extractor and throw it at the shark just before it leaps into the pile, which will immediately cause it to fall back down.
+
Druids can provide very high vulnerability by replacing Skirmishing with Marksmanship, and using both the {{trait|Remorseless}} trait and a {{skill|Storm Spirit}} to repeatedly trigger {{trait|Opening Strike}}.
  
After defeating the Dreg Shark, the squad can take one last sand portal to reach the [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Arcane_Springs Arcane Springs] and Qadim’s final challenge.
 
  
 +
====Pulls/Cleave====
 +
An aspect of role assignment that is often underappreciated. Around half the raid encounters feature enemies or objects that will spawn near the group and can either cause serious damage to the squad or waste the squad’s time dealing with them. Depending on the encounter the simplest solution is to use skills that [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pull pull] enemies into the boss where they will be quickly killed by the DPS, or skills that hit targets over a large area so that enemies or objects will be defeated without the need to take focus off the boss.
  
 +
Numerous skills can fulfil this function, but two in particular are worth mentioning due to their potency:
  
==Largos Assassins==
+
:{{Skill|Temporal Curtain}} - A Chronomancer can take an offhand focus to access Temporal Curtain. The curtain itself can be placed at 900 range from the Chronomancer and activated a second time to pull up to five targets within 600 range to the centre of the curtain. Unlike other options, the pull is not restricted by line of sight, can pull to remote locations, and affects a larger AoE than most alternatives.
Nikare waits alone on a platform to the north. To reach the platform, players must use the jet of water which will launch them onto the platform. The location of the fight will change throughout the encounter, and these jets of water can be used to move between platforms, or return to a nearby platform should a player fall off.
 
  
Both the Largos Assassin twins will aggro on toughness, and depending on the strategy used the group will require one or two tanks. Both twins’ basic attacks inflict a stack of {{Tooltip|Vulnerability}} which can quickly become dangerous if there is not sufficient [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition#Skills_that_remove_conditions condition clearing], and multiple abilities inflict further conditions, so support players are recommended to bring extra cleanses.
+
:{{Skill|Epidemic}} - A condition necromancer can take Epidemic as one of their utilities. This is a low-cooldown skill (when traited) that can hit up to 5 targets within 900 range of a primary target, copying conditions to them. With sufficient conditions on the main target, this is enough to kill the majority of additional enemies, thus offering an incredible amount of cleave without ever needing the necromancer to take focus off attacking the boss.
  
 +
While the above options are strong in their own right, they can also be supplemented by additional skills. The following are worth mentioning as they are taken by support classes that many groups will already have in the group.
  
===Nikare===
+
:{{Skill|Blazing Edge}} - Firebrand will normally take an axe for DPS or to provide {{Tooltip|Fury}}. This skill is a moderate 600 range pull on three targets.
After arriving on the platform, Nikare will move to the tank and attack.
 
  
 +
:{{Skill|Path of Scars}} - A Ranger (typically a Druid) can take an offhand axe to gain this skill, which will pull three targets towards the player. The skill has a range of 1200 but will only pull targets 450 units as the axe returns, and is somewhat slow-moving.
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Aquatic Detainment'''</div>
+
While the above two skills are not strong on their own, they can be very effective when combined with Temporal Curtain - either by using them to pull foes closer after Temporal Curtain groups them up or by pulling additional foes that may have been missed by Temporal Curtain.
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<div class="col-md-6" style="width:350px;padding:1rem;border-right:1px solid #111111;">{{#ev:gfycat|tepidshowyemu|320x240}}</div>
 
<div class="col-md" style="padding:1rem;">
 
Shortly after arriving on the platform, AoEs will appear under players’ feet that quickly fill with color. If a player is stood inside one when it fills, they will be trapped in a bubble and float upwards, taking moderate damage every second before being slammed back onto the platform. The attack can be blocked and evaded, and using a [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stun_break stun break] will cancel the float and damage. This attack repeats approximately every 25 seconds.
 
</div></div>
 
  
 +
:{{Skill|Scorched Earth}} - If the squad has a Condi Berserker, then their longbow burst skill is Scorched Earth - a large 1,200 range AoE that deals a large amount of burning and can be used very frequently while {{Skill|Berserk}} is active. The AoE is divided into 5 separate sections, each of which has its own target cap, so the skill could theoretically hit up to 25 targets. The best use of this skill is for the Berserker to line themselves up so that the boss is between them and the target(s) to be cleaved. Not only will this allow for effective long-range cleave, but hitting multiple targets will provide higher stacks of {{Trait|Furious}}, making this a DPS increase!
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Vapor Rush'''</div>
 
<div class="row" style="background:#171717;border-bottom:1px solid #292929;">
 
<div class="col-md-6" style="width:350px;padding:1rem;border-right:1px solid #111111;">{{#ev:gfycat|aggravatingtartcony|320x240}}</div>
 
<div class="col-md" style="padding:1rem;">
 
Immediately following the first use of <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52931" title="Aquatic Detainment" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, Nikare will turn around and charge towards the furthest player dealing heavy damage to anyone along in his path and inflicting {{Tooltip|Chilled}} and {{Tooltip|Slow}}. Upon reaching his target, he will charge at the player who is now the furthest from him, and then once more back to the tank. This attack will repeat approximately every 25 seconds, and will typically happen directly after <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52931" title="Aquatic Detainment" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, though they will become descynced as the fight goes on.
 
</div></div>
 
  
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Tidal Pool'''</div>
+
==Squad Composition==
<div class="row" style="background:#171717;border-bottom:1px solid #292929;">
+
All these factors will combine to define the structure of a squad.
<div class="col-md-6" style="width:350px;padding:1rem;border-right:1px solid #111111;">{{#ev:gfycat|vacantringedamericancrocodile|320x240}}</div>
+
The vast majority of boons affect five targets. So there will need to be at least two sources to cover every player.
<div class="col-md" style="padding:1rem;">
 
Seven seconds into the fight, a random non-tank player will gain an AoE underneath them that drains of color over five seconds. When empty, a pool of water drops at the player’s location and slowly expands for 82 seconds. Any player touching the pool takes moderate damage and gains stacks of a debuff called [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Waterlogged Waterlogged]. If a player is downed or leaves the platform the Tidal Pool will immediately be dropped at their location. This attack repeats every 13 seconds, but will sometimes be delayed for unknown reasons.
 
</div></div>
 
  
 +
The examples below cover the most common options (at the time of writing). Other options may also be viable, particularly in regards to {{Tooltip|Might}} and {{Tooltip|Fury}}.
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Geyser'''</div>
 
<div class="row" style="background:#171717;border-bottom:1px solid #292929;">
 
<div class="col-md-6" style="width:350px;padding:1rem;border-right:1px solid #111111;">{{#ev:gfycat|unacceptableuniformcleanerwrasse|320x240}}</div>
 
<div class="col-md" style="padding:1rem;">
 
10 seconds into the fight, two large AoEs will appear at random players’ locations and quickly fill with color over three seconds. When full, geysers erupt at the locations dealing moderate damage and launching players a large distance. The attack can be blocked and evaded, and stability will prevent the launch. This attack repeats approximately every 10 seconds.
 
</div></div>
 
  
 +
===Quickness===
 +
There are seven reliable sources of {{Tooltip|Quickness}} in the game - Catalysts, Chronomancers, Firebrands, Harbingers, Herald, Scrappers and Warriors (any elite specialization). Daredevil or Thief can also provide {{Tooltip|Quickness}} on raid encounters with the Detonate Plasma [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Steal#Skills_stolen_from_Raid_Encounters stolen skill] (currently [[Guide:Raid_Wing_2_-_Salvation_Pass#Matthias|Matthias]], [[Guide:Raid_Wing_3_-_Stronghold_of_the_Faithful#Keep_Construct|Keep Construct]] (from the Projections), [[Guide:Raid_Wing_4_-_Bastion_of_the_Penitent#Mursaat_Overseer|Mursaat Overseer]], and [[Guide:Raid_Wing_7_-_The_Key_of_Ahdashim#Cardinal_Adina|Adina]]).
  
Geyser is particularly dangerous because it can launch players off the platform, into the water. They will gain a stack of waterlogged for every two seconds that they are in the water, so getting back to the platform (via a water jet) as soon as possible is essential.
+
Catalyst deals a lot of damage, and can provide more quickness by adjusting their rotation. However, their only source of {{Tooltip|Quickness}} comes from a single skill every ~11 seconds, and missing it will leave a player completely without {{Tooltip|Quickness}} until the next application.
  
When Nikare is brought to 50% health, he will flee and his sister Kenut will appear on another platform to the north. This means that players dropping tidal pools should leave the northern edge of the platform clear, and try to drop them as far south and as close to the edge of the platform as they safely can.
+
Chronomancer brings the option for excellent pulls and is a very effective tank due to the high amount of active defense and the ability to provide boons at range, meaning that they can be further from the group. However, their damage is lower than other options and {{Tooltip|Quickness}} generation relies on constant clone generation and shattering.
  
 +
Firebrand’s {{Tooltip|Quickness}} is limited to a narrow cone and a small AoE around the Firebrand, and they do not have as strong a pull as a Chronomancer. However, they do good damage with a relatively simple rotation and also apply {{Tooltip|Quickness}} frequently and instantaneously, making them very reliable.
  
===Kenut===
+
Harbinger is similar to firebrand in that it applies shorter duration {{Tooltip|Quickness}} more frequently and so are generally a reliable source. Unfortunately they rely on staying in shroud for long durations for good uptime, and taking too much damage in this mode can kick them out early. They also have a smaller boon application radius than other options.
Much like Nikare, Kenut will move to the tank and attack once players arrive on the platform. However, there is an additional immediate threat:
 
  
 +
Herald deals good damage with a rather fast-paced rotation, and brings a huge amount of supplementary boons - including high {{tooltip|Might}} generation, which is a rarity in {{Tooltip|Quickness}} supports. More importantly, they have access to Revenant legends such as Jalis that can provide near-permanent {{tooltip|Stability}} or Ventari, that has a long-duration mobile projectile block. Finally, they can bring a staff in their off-set which gives access to {{Skill|Surge of the Mists}} - the most powerful [[Guide:What_are_CC_and_Breakbars|CC]] in the game.
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Aquatic Vortex'''</div>
+
Scrapper provides AoE {{Tooltip|Quickness}} around it at regular intervals, making it more reliable than Chronomancer. However, it cannot provide boons at range, and has limited additional utility outside of {{tooltip|Superspeed}}.  
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<div class="col-md-6" style="width:350px;padding:1rem;border-right:1px solid #111111;">{{#ev:gfycat|soupyspottedhornshark|320x240}}</div>
 
<div class="col-md" style="padding:1rem;">
 
On the platform with Kenut are three roaming vortices of water. They move in a straight line until they hit the edge of a platform, and then choose a random (clockwise) direction and repeat. Touching these aquatic vortices inflicts moderate damage in addition to {{Tooltip|Chilled}}, {{Tooltip|Slow}} and  a stack of waterlogged every second.
 
</div></div>
 
  
 +
Any Warrior specialization can provide {{Tooltip|Quickness}} via banners and the Discipline traitline. They are average in terms of reliability, DPS and utility, but they have a key benefit in that their banners can be dropped at 600 range. Once the AoE is taken into account this means that they can hit players up to 960 units away, which is over twice what any other build can manage (except Catalyst). When you also take into account that they only need to be used once every ~25s, this allows warrior to easily provide permanent {{Tooltip|Quickness}} uptime to their subgroup while dealing with mechanics off-stack.
  
Touching an <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52130" title="Aquatic Vortex" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> is dangerous enough, but a player getting downed inside one is almost certainly dead. As such, the tank will need to move so that the rest of the squad are able to maintain damage on the boss without being hit.
 
  
 +
===Alacrity===
 +
There are eight reliable sources of {{Tooltip|Alacrity}} in the game - Chronomancers, Mechanists, Mirages, Rangers (technically any ranger spec but Druid is most common), Renegades, Specters, Tempests and Willbenders.
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Vapor Jet'''</div>
+
Chronomancer has to run a very specific build and high boon duration in order to maintain {{Tooltip|Alacrity}}, but it can provide boons at range and brings mesmer's powerful utility skills, which can be useful in some groups.
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<div class="col-md" style="padding:1rem;">
 
Shortly after engaging Kenut, she will vanish and appear a second later at the player furthest from her. She will aim a large rectangular AoE at the player, and any players caught inside will take heavy damage, have all their boons stolen and receive {{Tooltip|Poison}}. This attack repeats approximately every 25 seconds.
 
</div></div>
 
  
 +
Druid can only really be run as a healer, but brings a great variety of boons and can provide more healing at range than other options. For a DPS alacrity ranger build, Untamed can abuse {{trait|Fervent Force}} to get away with no boon duration and only two spirits, but the rotation is very difficult to pull off and provides almost no additional boons.
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Sea Swell'''</div>
+
Even when focussing on damage, Mechanist provides a decent amount of incidental barrier, which can enable some groups to run with fewer healers. It also has access to some an on-demand source of {{Tooltip|Aegis}} and {{Tooltip|Stability}} (albeit on a long cooldown), which can make it very potent on the right encounters.  
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<div class="col-md" style="padding:1rem;">
 
A ring indicator will expand out of Kenut, and a second later a shockwave erupts outwards, dealing heavy damage and launching players. In addition, Kenut will gain {{Tooltip|Protection}} for each player hit. The shockwave can be jumped or evaded. Stability and block can also be used to defend against it, but the attack hits multiple times as it expands so players should move towards Kenut as the attack hits in order to only be hit once. This attack will repeat approximately every 25 seconds.
 
</div></div>
 
  
 +
The utility of Mirage is limited, but it is also capable of maintaining permanent {{Tooltip|Might}} on the squad, and applies a significant amount of {{Tooltip|Confusion}} which makes it a very strong DPS in its own right on certain bosses.
  
Kenut will effectively alternate between the <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51965" title="Vapor Jet" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> and <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="53018" title="Sea Swell" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> mechanics, so this will give players an idea of what she is about to do next. Similar to <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="53130" title="Geyser" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="53018" title="Sea Swell" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> can easily knock players into the water or an <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52130" title="Aquatic Vortex" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> so it is essential to jump or otherwise avoid the attack.  
+
Renegade has many of the same benefits as Herald, but otherwise deals low damage and provides few additional boons in comparison so other {{Tooltip|Alacrity}} options.
  
As both mechanics provide a way for Kenut to gain boons, it may be worthwhile to have at least one player bring some kind of [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon#Skills_that_remove_boons boon removal] to deal with this.  
+
Similarly, Specter also provides a good amount of incidental barrier and has the option to target specific allies to support them directly, which can be very helpful for tanks in particular. With {{Skill|Well of Bounty}}, they can provide a good range of boons, and deal a good amount of damage while doing so.
  
 +
Tempests bring a wide variety of boons even when on DPS variants, but the necessity to complete long overloads to provide alacrity makes them struggle on encounters that may disrupt their rotation.
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Cyclone Burst'''</div>
+
Willbender is the weakest option of the bunch. Its damage is average, and {{tooltip|Alacrity}} generation depends on constantly hitting the boss, making it significantly less versatile than other options. As such, it is by far the least common option used.
<div class="row" style="background:#171717;border-bottom:1px solid #292929;">
 
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<div class="col-md" style="padding:1rem;">
 
A series of AoEs of increasing size pulse out from Kenut in three directions, dealing moderate damage and inflicting {{Tooltip|Torment}}. After the first set of AoEs, this attack repeats with the directions of the attack rotated by 60 degrees. This attack repeats approximately every 13 seconds.
 
</div></div>
 
  
  
Once Kenut is brought to 50% health, she will jump to another platform to the north-east while Nikare returns on a platform to the north-west.
+
===Might and Fury===
 +
Given that two boon supports are already required in each subgroup, per the rule of role compression it makes sense that between them they also provide {{tooltip|Might}} and {{tooltip|Fury}}. With so many options it can be difficult to know how to cover everything - to that end, the table below covers the options along with the approximate {{tooltip|Might}}, {{tooltip|Fury}} and {{tooltip|Protection}} they offer. The goal should be to pick a pair of supports that covers all four of the essential boons. {{tooltip|Protection}} is included as it is relatively common, and always useful.
  
  
===Strategy===
+
{{Collapse start|What does this table mean}}
At this point there are two options for how to proceed. The squad can split into two groups and take on both Largos at once, or they can remain as a single group and fight them in turn. The latter method is complicated by the fact that each platform in the encounter has a two minute timer on it. If the boss is not phased before the timer expires, the entire raid will wipe. This time will also be cut into by having to travel between the platforms. For these reasons squads will often have a player with {{Skill|Portal Entre}} leave the platform just before the boss phases so that they can reach the other platform as soon as possible and give everyone else instant passage to the other boss.  
+
The table below shows the approximate boon uptimes each spec can provide in an ideal situation, colour-coded for convenience. In the case of {{tooltip|Might}} and {{tooltip|Fury}}, most DPS classes have some amount of self-generation so cases where the provision ''should'' be sufficient are indicated too - at the time of writing this only applies to Catalyst {{tooltip|Might}} and firebrand {{tooltip|Fury}}.
  
If the former method is chosen, it is important to ensure that both groups have a tank, a healer and sufficient DPS to kill the boss within the two minutes.
+
The assumed boon duration is included to allow you to estimate how provision would increase as you take more boon duration. The presented values are for DPS alacrity builds (where applicable), but where the heal variant has entirely new sources of boons they have been given a separate row (as in the case of Firebrand and Mechanist). Other heal builds simply provide more of the stated boons, or are niche enough that they have been omitted in the interest of readability.  
  
Whichever method is chosen, the bosses will use the same mechanics as before, with one addition:
+
The final column shows details on which extra boons the build provides. The focus is kept on boons here, as attempting to include details on all the benefits a class might provide would quickly cause the size of the table to balloon. See the individual build pages for details like this.
 +
{{Collapse end}}
  
  
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Aquatic Barrage'''</div>
+
===Boon Table===
<div class="row" style="background:#171717;border-bottom:1px solid #292929;">
+
<div class="table-responsive">
<div class="col-md-6" style="width:350px;padding:1rem;border-right:1px solid #111111;">{{#ev:gfycat|poisedpartialfly|320x240}}</div>
+
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width: 100%;"
<div class="col-md" style="padding:1rem;">
+
|-
Approximately 20s after after engaging each boss, they will jump to the center of their platforms, gain [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Barrier barrier] and a [https://metabattle.com/wiki/Guide:What_are_CC_and_Breakbars defiance bar] and begin rapidly spinning, firing bolts of water in all directions on their platform as well as across to the other platform. These bolts deal moderate damage and the boss must be broken to stop the attack. They will also be {{Tooltip|Exposed}} for eight seconds after being broken. This attack repeats approximately every 55 seconds (persisting between platforms). The bolts of water are projectiles, and so [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Block#Projectile_destruction projectile defense] is useful here.
+
!
 +
! Quickness / Alacrity
 +
! Might
 +
! Fury
 +
! Protection
 +
! Assumed BD
 +
! Notes / Additional boons
 +
|-
 +
! Catalyst
 +
| Quickness
 +
|style="background: #446622;"| 24
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0%
 +
| 12%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* You can trade ~11 might for ~80% {{Tooltip|Protection}} by using {{skill|Deploy Jade Sphere (Earth)}} instead of {{skill|Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire)}} on the minor loop
 +
* Provides ~80% {{Tooltip|Swiftness}} by attuning to air
 +
* Provides ~45% {{Tooltip|Resolution}} and ~50% {{Tooltip|Vigor}} from water sphere
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Chronomancer
 +
| Either
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 3
 +
|style="background: #666622;"| 65%
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0%
 +
| 10%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* {{Skill|Echo of Memory}} can be used to generate a small amount of {{Tooltip|Protection}}
 +
* Provides ~20% {{tooltip|Swiftness}} with {{skill|Tides of Time}}
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Druid
 +
| Alacrity
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 25
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
| 100%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Provides ~100% {{tooltip|Regeneration}}
 +
* Provides ~100% {{tooltip|Swiftness}} from {{skill|Call of the Wild}}
 +
* Can provide ~100% {{tooltip|Vigor}} if bringing {{skill|Sun Spirit}}
 +
* Can provide on-demand {{tooltip|Aegis}} with a White Tiger, and {{tooltip|Stability}} with {{skill|Glyph of Equality}} and/or {{skill|Glyph of the Stars}}
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Firebrand
 +
| Quickness
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 7
 +
|style="background: #446622;"| 80%
 +
|style="background: #aa6622;"| 45%
 +
| 20%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Provides ~55% {{tooltip|Resolution}} with {{skill|Mantra of Solace}}
 +
* Has on-demand access to {{tooltip|Aegis}} and {{tooltip|Stability}} from Tomes and utility skills
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Firebrand (heal)
 +
| Quickness
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 25
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
| 92%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Provides ~75% {{tooltip|Resolution}} with {{skill|Mantra of Solace}}
 +
* Has on-demand access to {{tooltip|Aegis}} and {{tooltip|Stability}} from Tomes and utility skills
 +
* Provides ~100% {{tooltip|Vigor}}, {{tooltip|Regeneration}} and {{tooltip|Swiftness}} with {{tooltip|Chapter 3 Azure Sun}}
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Harbinger
 +
| Quickness
 +
|style="background: #666622;"| 12
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0%
 +
| 20%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Provides ~55% {{tooltip|Swiftness}} with {{skill|Elixir of Anguish}}
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Herald
 +
| Quickness
 +
|style="background: #666622;"| 15
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
| 25%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Provides ~100% {{tooltip|Swiftness}} from {{skill|Facet of Elements}}
 +
* Can provide high {{tooltip|Stability}} uptime by taking {{skill|Legendary Dwarf Stance}}
 +
* Can provide significantly more {{tooltip|Might}} with some build adjustments
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Mechanist
 +
| Alacrity
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 25
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
|style="background: #aa6622;"| 35%
 +
| 50%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Using mace brings high {{tooltip|Vigor}} uptime and some barrier
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Mechanist (heal)
 +
| Alacrity
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 25
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
| 100%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Provides 100% {{tooltip|Regeneration}} and {{tooltip|Vigor}}
 +
* Provides ~80% {{tooltip|Swiftness}} with {{skill|Infusion Bomb}}
 +
* Has on-demand {{tooltip|Aegis}} and {{tooltip|Stability}} with {{skill|Crisis Zone}} as it isn't needed for {{tooltip|Alacrity}}
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Mirage
 +
| Alacrity
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 25
 +
|style="background: #666622;"| 60%
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0%
 +
| 17%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* {{Skill|Winds of Chaos}} randomly generate extra {{tooltip|Fury}} or {{tooltip|Might}}
 +
* {{Skill|Chaos Storm}} provides a random amount of {{tooltip|Aegis}}, {{tooltip|Resolution}} and {{tooltip|Swiftness}}
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Renegade
 +
| Alacrity
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0%
 +
|style="background: #446622;"| 80%
 +
| 85%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Can provide ~16 {{tooltip|Might}} by sacrificing a bit of damage so you have the energy for {{skill|Heroic Command}}
 +
* Can provide ~55% {{tooltip|Fury}} by taking {{trait|Assassin's Presence}}, but it is DPS loss on what is already a low DPS class
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Scrapper
 +
| Quickness
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 7
 +
|style="background: #666622;"| 60%
 +
|style="background: #aa6622;"| 35%
 +
| 30%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Provides ~100% {{tooltip|Superspeed}}
 +
* Can provide on-demand {{tooltip|Stability}} by replacing {{skill|Shredder Gyro}} with {{skill|Bulwark Gyro}}
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Specter
 +
| Alacrity
 +
|style="background: #666622;"| 14
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0%
 +
| 57%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Provides ~100% {{tooltip|Swiftness}} with {{skill|Siphon}}
 +
* Provides ~100% {{tooltip|Vigor}}
 +
* {{skill|Well of Bounty}} provides a small amount of {{tooltip|Stability}} and {{tooltip|Resistance}}, but you need to use it off cooldown so it is unreliable
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Tempest
 +
| Alacrity
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 25
 +
|style="background: #666622;"| 0%*
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
| 57%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Does not generate {{tooltip|Fury}} but can extend it on allies
 +
* Can provide permanent {{tooltip|Swiftness}} with {{skill|Cyclone}} and {{skill|"Eye of the Storm!"}}
 +
* Can provide on-demand {{tooltip|Aegis}} or {{tooltip|Stability}} with {{skill|"Aftershock!"}} or {{skill|"Eye of the Storm!"}}
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Untamed
 +
| Alacrity
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0
 +
|style="background: #666622;"| 55%
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0%
 +
| 16%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* With some adjustments to the build it can bring a lot of {{tooltip|Might}} as well
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Warrior
 +
| Quickness
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 7
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0%
 +
| 0%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Spellbreaker generates an extra ~5 {{tooltip|Might}}
 +
* Provides ~45% {{tooltip|Resistance}} and some {{tooltip|Stability}} with {{skill|Banner of Tactics}} but you need to use it off cooldown so it isn't reliable
 +
* Can provide {{tooltip|Aegis}} and Barrier with {{skill|Banner of Defense}} but you need to use it off cooldown so it isn't reliable
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|-
 +
! Willbender
 +
| Alacrity
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 3
 +
|style="background: #226622;"| 100%
 +
|style="background: #aa2222;"| 0%
 +
| 20%
 +
| {{Collapse start|Click for more details}}
 +
* Can provide on-demand {{tooltip|Aegis}} or {{tooltip|Stability}} by swapping out a utility
 +
{{Collapse end}}
 +
|}
 +
</div>
  
Be aware that should a boss attempt to use <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51977" title="Aquatic Barrage" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> as it is phasing, it can bug and cause the boss to jump back to the previous platform, rendering the fight impossible. If this happens, future attempts should consider slowing down their damage until the attack has been used (as this is much easier to control than increasing DPS). <br>Defiance Bar: 2000
 
</div></div>
 
  
 +
===Healers===
 +
Depending on the boss, a squad may desire multiple healers. While groups should always be aiming to have as few healers as possible, as many as necessary should be taken.
  
Care must be taken throughout this encounter to avoid receiving stacks of waterlogged, as reaching 10 stacks will cause a player to instantly be killed. In addition to avoiding mechanics that apply the debuff, should a player fall into the water they must get back to the platform as quickly as possible. Be aware that as the bosses move to different platforms, water nearer the start of the encounter will disappear so if in doubt a player should head to the nothern-most jet as these will remain active if the boss phases.
+
In general, you want your boon supports to be the healers, but special mention must go to Scourge - while it has low healing and provides practically no boons, it has the strongest access to [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Barrier barrier] in the game. Barrier effectively prevents the targets from taking damage and can even allow the group to survive some attacks that would otherwise instantly down players. Scourge also has access to {{Trait|Transfusion}}, which will teleport downed players to your location and begin reviving them. This enables Scourge to save a group from situations that would otherwise be a wipe.
  
When each boss is taken to 25%, they will phase once more and move to their final platform. The final platform has additional jets that allow players to jump between sides, so this means that only a single portal would be needed if that particular strategy is being followed. While fighting the largos in this phase, players gain a stack of a debuff called Aquatic Aura every three seconds. This debuff increases the damage taken from the largos whose platform the player is on by 2% per stack. If the pressure caused by this debuff is too high, the squad may consider having both groups swap sides after a certain point.
 
  
When one of the bosses dies, their twin will enrage and deal double damage. This will cause many of their abilities to instantly down any player hit by them, which makes the portal strategy somewhat risky as the squad will have to do a whole phase of a boss under enrage.
+
<blockquote>
 +
====A note on reviving====
 +
It is important to note that reviving players from downed state is everyone’s responsibility - letting a player die because a DPS player won’t break their rotation will result in much lower DPS overall.
  
This also means that when splitting and killing both bosses simultaneously, an effort should be made to balance the damage in both groups so that the bosses are killed simultaneously – it may be worth considering that Nikare has slightly more health than Kenut, and his <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52876" title="Vapor Rush" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> is more difficult to dodge than Kenut’s  <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="53018" title="Sea Swell" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> (and will instantly down most players), so it might be best to kill him first.
+
There are a few exceptions:
 +
*If reviving the player would get other players killed.
 +
*The tank should not revive as they will turn the boss towards the rest of the group, making matters worse.
 +
*Healers are well suited to reviving as healing % modifiers affect the speed of reviving. However, in cases where there is only one healer, the loss of healing on the remaining players can easily lead to more people being downed. With multiple healers, this is less risky, but you should still avoid having all healers reviving.
  
After defeating the Largos Assassins, Qadim decides he’s had enough of bets, blasts a hole in the wall and makes for the [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mythwright_Cauldron Mythwright Cauldron]. The squad must proceed up the [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grand_Causeway Grand Causeway], which is littered with enemies. Only the three [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pyre_Guardian Pyre Guardians] need to be killed to open the way to the final boss, and Zommoros himself will eventually kill the first one. Hence the group can just run/mount past everything else and kill the final two Pyre Guardians. The Pyre Guardians launch bouncing fireballs down the stairs near them that instantly down players hit by them, and instantly kill downed players.
+
Of course, everyone should still revive as a last resort if no-one else will.
 +
</blockquote>
  
  
 +
<blockquote>
 +
====A note on buff priority====
 +
Generally speaking, boons apply on the following priority: Subgroup -> Proximity. This means that a five-target buff will be applied to members of the subgroup within range, and if this is fewer than five, it will then be applied to the closest player regardless of subgroup. Similarly, if there are more than five targets within the subgroup in range, it will apply to the five closest players to the source of the boon.
  
==Qadim==
+
Healing and condition cleansing is slightly different: a healing skill will not target a player that is at full health, nor will a condition cleanse target a player with no conditions (there are some exceptions, typically when the skill also provides a boon), and will instead apply to the highest priority target that can be healed. This means healing will “overflow” to other subgroups, though the healer’s subgroup will still receive more.</blockquote>
On a large platform floating above the [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Heart_of_the_Cauldron Heart of the Cauldron], Zommoros and Qadim are engaged in combat. Players must activate a section of platform near the start that will convey them towards the Djinn. This also creates a portal at the start for other players to use to get to the main platform. The encounter will not begin until a player approaches Qadim, and a significant amount of setup is required as this fight has many moving parts – literally, as the triangular sections that form the main platform will constantly disappear and shift position throughout the fight. It can be helpful to know that objects “attached” to a platform section will travel with them, even while they are inactive. This means that [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commander#Markers squad markers] can be placed on a section of platform and the marker will always remain in the correct location. This can be particularly helpful as the constant rearranging of the platform can be confusing.
 
  
Several things will happen once the fight starts, and all need to be dealt with to progress the encounter. Note that all the legendary enemies in this encounter aggro on the closest target, so players will need to be careful with their positioning so as to not become the tank.
 
  
Players should be aware that if they fall off the platforms at any point they are able to float back up, but due to the constant rearrangement of the platform sections themselves this can leave them trapped if they fall through a gap that then closes. The longer a player takes to return to the platform, the more damage they will take.
+
<blockquote>
 +
====A note on stacking====
 +
There are very few abilities in Guild Wars 2 that target a specific character for boons or heals, most are instead applied in an AoE according to the priorities described above. This means that groups will “stack” near one another to ensure that supports can hit as many players as possible.  
  
 +
In general, melee weapons deal more damage than ranged options and so the result is that the stack will want to be in melee range where possible. Therefore, in the vast majority of encounters the tank will face the boss in one direction while everyone else stacks directly behind it. This also ensures that players take less damage, as attacks aimed at the tank usually cleave.
  
===Lava Elemental Kiting===
+
Because of this, the benefits of ranged weapons are somewhat minimized and even classes that are capable of dealing all their damage at range are still encouraged to be in melee.</blockquote>
Qadim is initially protected by [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flame_Armor Flame Armor] and cannot take damage, yet he will still direct attacks at the closest player. However, the real threat comes from multiple [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lava_Elemental Lava Elementals] that spawn in the corners of Qadim’s platform section and move towards him. Each elemental that reaches him grants a stack of [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fiery_Surge Fiery Surge], increasing his damage by 20% and causes him to activate skills 2% faster.  
 
  
The elementals do not have a huge amount of health and their spawn times are slightly offset meaning that a single player can kill all of them. Qadim will aim attacks at the closest target, but will not turn once he begins casting, hence it is possible to avoid damage if the player keeps moving as they kill the elementals.
 
  
Qadim will always follow the same attack pattern:
 
  
:<span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52814" title="Flame Wave" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52614" title="Fire Dance" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>
+
===Boon Support Pairings===
 +
As most heal builds can easily provide {{tooltip|Might}} and {{tooltip|Fury}}, groups that run two healers don't really need to worry too much about composition beyond the basics. On many encounters this is overkill (or the group may want to run something like a heal scourge instead), so the subgroup without a healer will need to make sure that there is a good pairing.
  
This pattern is used twice, followed by:
+
To restrict the options a bit, we will only look at pairings that provide good {{tooltip|Protection}} uptime (or good barrier). This adds a safety net that will be useful for groups that are used to having two healers.
  
:<span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52242" title="Shattering Impact" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>
+
While Specter does not provide {{tooltip|Protection}} it does provide a good amount of Barrier, which might serve the same function. In cases where this is the only defensive buff in the group, it will be indicated with an asterisk. 
  
After this, an AoE begins to fill up the platform and Qadim will tether to the closest player. Once full, the platform will be covered with a <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52775" title="Sea of Flame" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> and Qadim will teleport to the location of the tethered player and repeat his attack pattern. Qadim selects the platform he will teleport to before he moves and if the player moves to a different platform section before the teleport happens, Qadim will teleport to the player again until he successfully arrives on the platform section that the tethered player is on. If that platform contains a legendary creature (or is the same platform Qadim is currently on) he will instead teleport to an adjacent platform. Every time Qadim has to repeat the teleport he will gain five stacks of Fiery Surge.
+
<div>
 +
<div class="row">
 +
<div class="col">
 +
====Quickness Pairings====
 +
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%;"
 +
|-
 +
! Quickness
 +
! Alacrity
 +
|-
 +
| Catalyst
 +
| Tempest, Renegade, Specter
 +
|-
 +
| Chronomancer / Warrior
 +
| Tempest
 +
|-
 +
| Firebrand
 +
| Mechanist, Tempest
 +
|-
 +
| Harbinger
 +
| Specter*, Tempest
 +
|-
 +
| Herald
 +
| Mechanist, Mirage, Specter, Tempest
 +
|-
 +
| Scrapper
 +
| Mechanist, Tempest
 +
|}
 +
</div>
  
Key to avoiding damage as a kiter is understanding the area Qadim’s attacks cover. Directly underneath Qadim is a <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52461" title="Sea of Flame" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> that deals heavy damage. This is mostly easy to avoid, but when traveling between platforms it can become problematic. The kiter should avoid the center of the platform section when Qadim is teleporting and later in the encounter the kiter will need to use orbs that “bounce” the player between platforms, and will launch the player to the center of a platform section unless they deploy their glider while bouncing.
+
<div class="col">
 +
====Alacrity Pairings====
 +
{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%;"
 +
|-
 +
! Alacrity
 +
! Quickness
 +
|-
 +
| Mechanist, Mirage
 +
| Herald, Firebrand, Scrapper
 +
|-
 +
| Renegade
 +
| Catalyst
 +
|-
 +
| Specter
 +
| Catalyst*, Herald, Harbinger*
 +
|-
 +
| Tempest
 +
| Anything
 +
|-
 +
| Chronomancer, Untamed, Willbender
 +
| These options are lacking in boons, so they will generally need to be paired with a healer. Alternatively, with some adjustments a Herald can likely provide enough Might.
 +
|}
 +
</div></div></div>
  
Qadim’s basic attack, <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, has a two-part AoE. The first part is a cone in front of Qadim that extends as far as the inner circle on the platform, and the second part is a line that extends directly out of the center of the cone. Qadim can only aim this attack in fixed directions – either along the central lines or directly in between them. This means that a player standing in one of the corner sections of a platform (avoiding the central line) cannot be hit by this attack.
 
  
<span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52614" title="Fire Dance" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> causes fire to trace along the lines on his platform section, and in combination with <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> means that the kiter should never stop on these lines.
+
The tables above should suffice in the majority of cases, but there are a few classes that require specific boons to function optimally, creating further considerations:
  
<span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52242" title="Shattering Impact" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> targets the closest player on the platform directly.
 
  
If the kiter is constantly moving, then they should ensure that they avoid the inner circle as not only is the cone section of <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> harder to avoid but it can multi-hit, dealing a lot of damage. Using this method the kiter should naturally avoid all damage coming from Qadim aside from the ticking aura, though care should be taken not to be hit by <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52614" title="Fire Dance" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>.
+
Mesmers running the Chaos traitline require high {{Tooltip|Regeneration}} uptime. Most healers are capable of providing this to at least their own subgroup, but in the case of single-healer setups they should be placed in the same subgroup as the healer. Heralds and Mechanists using Mace also provide a good amount of {{Tooltip|Regeneration}}.
  
If the kiter uses a ranged weapon to kill the elementals, they can instead camp in one of the corners where they will never be hit by <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> or <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52614" title="Fire Dance" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>. They will however need to dodge <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52814" title="Flame Wave" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> and <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52242" title="Shattering Impact" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>. The kiter should be mindful that Qadim will launch a flurry of <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52159" title="Fireball" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>s in front of himself while charging <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52814" title="Flame Wave" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, though they only deal light damage.
+
Next, Dragonhunters require high {{Tooltip|Resolution}} uptime, which is best provided by other Guardians using greatswords. Hence Dragonhunters should usually be placed together or split evenly between the two subgroups if there are too many. Firebrands and power Renegades also provide a lot.
  
When Qadim enflames the platform underneath him, the kiter will need to move to an adjacent tile and start again. This must be repeated until other members of the squad have completed their task, so the kiter should ensure that they have sufficient sustain, and if necessary they may need a healer assigned to them as well. If a dedicated healer is being used to help the kiter, they should try to ensure that they are the closest player to Qadim as they are more able to keep themselves alive. This applies whichever method of kiting is used.
+
Scrappers and hammer Spellbreakers benefit from {{tooltip|Stability}}. Though this is typically only used on-demand, Alacrity Mechanists and Specters, and Quickness Warriors generate some passively.
  
 +
Weavers and Warriors running Discipline - Both of these classes get a significant damage buff from {{Tooltip|Swiftness}}. Most healers can provide it, as can Catalysts, Heralds, Specters and Tempest.
  
===Qadim’s Menagerie===
+
Finally, Vindicators, Daredevils and Mirage all want {{tooltip|Vigor}}. This is typically provided by healers, but can also come from Mechanists using mace, Specters and other Vindicators.
At the start of the encounter, Qadim throws his [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Qadim%27s_Lamp lamp] to Zommoros’ location and pulls him into the Menagerie. When this happens, a large green AoE appears underneath Zommoros that quickly empties of color. Any player contained within this AoE when it empties will also be transported to the Menagerie, though Zommoros will be nowhere in sight. If there is no player inside the green AoE, the lamp will begin to pull players towards the lamp until at least one person is captured.
 
  
The players will find themselves in a square room adjoined to two other square rooms. They will be located in the corner of a 4x4 grid of rooms, and the goal is to reach the opposite corner of the grid, where they will find a friendly legendary creature that will help them in the fight against Qadim.
 
  
Each of the rooms other than the start has a group of enemies inside, and killing all these enemies causes the walls of the room to disappear, allowing passage to the next room. If players take too long to kill the occupants of a room, they will begin to respawn, and eventually the walls behind them will respawn too and begin dealing damage to the players inside. The power level of the creatures varies from room to room from standard mobs to champions, and there will always be a path through the menagerie that avoids elites or champions. The image below shows the layout of the menagerie each time it is visited, with the safest rooms indicated in green. Be aware that the final room of each path (devourers, moas and giants) is always the most challenging so the players may wish to preserve valuable skills for this room.
 
  
[[file:Qadims Menagerie.png|class=img-fluid]]
+
==Simple Raid Builds==
 +
For a selection of recommended builds for beginners check out:
 +
{{#ask:
 +
[[Category:PvE guides]]
 +
[[Has guide title::Simple Raid Builds]]
 +
|?Has guide title
 +
|?Has guide description
 +
|?Is designed for
 +
|?Has section
 +
|?Has icon
 +
|format=template
 +
|template=Guide row
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|link=none
 +
}}
  
All three fights through the menagerie can be soloed, though the third menagerie is significantly more dangerous than the others so additional players may be necessary for this. The squad should send as many players as is necessary to safely and quickly complete the menagerie (and perhaps additional players for the third menagerie).
 
  
When the players are transported to the menagerie, one of the transported players at random will be targeted with a beam of light. When the legendary creature at the end of the menagerie is reached, Qadim’s lamp must be destroyed by someone who remained on the platform. This will create a large green AoE around the player that was targeted and a few seconds later any player (and the legendary creature) within the AoE will be teleported back to the platform. For this reason the targeted player must ensure that all players and the legendary creature are nearby, and then must communicate with the rest of the squad that the lamp can be destroyed (it is common to spam-ping a mount in squad chat). If the lamp is destroyed and the players return without the legendary creature, they must wait for the lamp to activate again and make another attempt – the lamp is resummoned every time Qadim changes platform. Finally, if the group in the menagerie take too long to reach the legendary creature, the beam of light will expire and the players will be trapped until the lamp pulls someone else in.
+
For our complete list of builds, see the [[Raid_Builds|Raid Builds Page]].
  
When the players return to the main platform, they will be floating in the air and can use their [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Special_action_skill Special Action Key] to [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Drop_(skill) drop] back onto the platform. Otherwise they will drop automatically after a few seconds, and thus should ensure that they are above a platform.
 
  
 
+
==Raid Guides==
===Strategy===
+
Hopefully this guide has provided an understanding of the considerations that go into forming a raid team. Both this and the guides below aim to be written in such a way as to be relevant irrespective of the current balance. They provide details on the roles that are required for each encounter and together with this guide should be enough to build compositions for each encounter that work for your group.
When Qadim captures Zommoros and the menagerie team, a legendary creature is released from the lamp. Those members of the squad not assigned to the other functions will be dealing with these legendary creatures for much of the encounter. All the creatures aggro on proximity, so a player will need to tank in order to keep them facing away from the rest of the group. All the creatures have [https://metabattle.com/wiki/Guide:What_are_CC_and_Breakbars defiance bars] (strength: 1500) that will need to be broken quickly. If there is no-one on the platform with the legendary creatures they will unleash devastating attacks on the squad until a player reaches them.
+
{{#ask:
 
+
[[Category:PvE guides]]
A fiery vortex on the floor indicates the location that the legendary creature will appear. Players should stack between the center of the platform and the edge, avoiding the area between the center and the corners as Qadim will regularly drop an <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52587" title="Inferno" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> where the outer circle intersects the lines leading from the center to the corner. The tank should position themselves close to the center of the platform in order to ensure that they maintain aggro, and face the legendary creature away from the other players.
+
[[Has guide title::Raid Wing 1 - Spirit Vale]] OR [[Has guide title::Raid Wing 2 - Salvation Pass]] OR [[Has guide title::Raid Wing 3 - Stronghold of the Faithful]] OR [[Has guide title::Raid Wing 4 - Bastion of the Penitent]] OR [[Has guide title::Raid Wing 5 - Hall of Chains]] OR [[Has guide title::Raid Wing 6 - Mythwright Gambit]] OR [[Has guide title::Raid Wing 7 - The Key of Ahdashim]]
 
+
|?Has guide title
 
+
|?Has guide description
<big>'''Ancient Invoked Hydra'''</big>
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|?Is designed for
 
+
|?Has section
The [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ancient_Invoked_Hydra Ancient Invoked Hydra] uses the following attack pattern:
+
|?Has icon
 
+
|format=template
:<span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51979" title="Dual Bite" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51979" title="Dual Bite" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52520" title="Elemental Breath" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51979" title="Dual Bite" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51979" title="Dual Bite" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52941" title="Fiery Meteor" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51979" title="Dual Bite" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51979" title="Dual Bite" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>
+
|template=Guide row
 
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|link=none
It is possible for the tank to walk out of all the hydra's attacks, including <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51979" title="Dual Bite" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>. This attack starts with the hydra's rightmost head, and it will miss if the tank moves to the right as it begins because the hydra is rooted throughout.
+
}}
 
 
During <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52941" title="Fiery Meteor" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> the hydra will gain a defiance bar, and if it is not quickly broken a meteor will fall at every player’s location (including the kiter(s), but excluding those in the menagerie). This attack is hard to dodge, and if it downs the kiter it can easily cause a wipe.
 
 
 
After reaching the end of the attack pattern, the hydra will teleport to the adjacent platform in the direction of the closest player, and repeat the pattern. The second time the hydra uses <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52520" title="Elemental Breath" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, Qadim will <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52281" title="Swap" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> any player within the hydra's hitbox to Qadim himself so the tank needs to be careful. It is crucial to note that this <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52281" title="Swap" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> coincides with Qadim's <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52242" title="Shattering Impact" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> and tether, meaning that teleported players are at risk of being tethered by Qadim. Should this happen they must wait with the kiter(s) and allow Qadim to teleport to them before returning to the stack, otherwise they will drag Qadim behind them likely causing a wipe.
 
 
 
If left alone, the hydra will spit a <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="53013" title="Fireball" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> at players.
 
 
 
Once the menagerie team indicate that they have reached the legendary creature, a player should destroy the lamp in the center of the arena and the players will return along with the allied legendary creature, a [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Legendary_Iceborn_Hydra Legendary Iceborn Hydra]. It may be worth assigning a specific player to destroying the lamp to avoid confusion.
 
 
 
Once the iceborn hydra arrives on the platform, the invoked hydra will focus on it instead of the tank. The iceborn hydra will attack the invoked hydra, dealing 80% of its maximum health as damage and stunning the invoked hydra. The iceborn hydra will then disappear, and the invoked hydra will enrage, dealing double damage.
 
 
 
Ideally, there will be sufficient players attacking the hydra that it is below 80% health when the menagerie team return, meaning that it will be killed instantly by the iceborn hydra. If this is not the case, then the tank will need to be ready to take aggro again once the iceborn hydra departs. The invoked hydra will start its rotation from the beginning.
 
 
 
 
 
<big>'''Pyre Guardians'''</big>
 
 
 
Once the invoked hydra dies, the lava elementals will stop spawning and Qadim will move to the center of the platform. At the same time the platform sections will drift apart and all but three will be destroyed by Qadim. On each of these platforms, a creature will spawn with a single boon – either {{Tooltip|Protection}}, {{Tooltip|Resolution}} or {{Tooltip|Stability}}. The creatures themselves are not dangerous and simply serve to indicate what will follow.
 
 
 
A few seconds later, the missing platform sections will reappear in a new arrangement and on each the three outer platform sections is a [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pyre_Guardian Pyre Guardian] with a boon matching that of the nearest creature. To reach these platforms, players must jump into the floating blue orbs, which will launch them across to the nearby section. While the pyres are alive, they will constantly apply their boon to Qadim so it is important to kill them all. For this reason it can be worth assigning specific players to each pyre so as to keep an even spread of damage, and it's also worth ensuring that the {{Tooltip|Protection}} and {{Tooltip|Resolution}} pyres have a player who can remove the boon. While a pyre is alive, it will regularly spit out an<span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52030" title="Incineration Orb" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> that bounces around the platform. These balls will instantly down a player, or instantly kill a downed player but can be blocked and evaded.
 
 
 
A short time after the pyres spawn, a [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Greater_Magma_Elemental Greater Magma Elemental] will spawn in each of the three corners of the main platform. They are surrounded by a shield AoE and within it are multiple lava elementals that cannot be targeted or damaged while the shield is active. The elementals proceed towards Qadim and should the lava elementals reach him they will grant stacks of Fiery Surge.
 
 
 
There are several options for preventing this: Players returning from pyres can kill the magma elementals and cleave down the lava elementals, or alternatively they can CC the magma elementals as the lava elementals will continue on regardless, leaving them vulnerable. The later method can be risky as the magma elementals are dangerous in their own right and will attack players as they attempt to engage Qadim. In particular, they have a knockback attack that can be lethal in later sections of the encounter that have more gaps in the platforms. A third approach is to simply stack at Qadim and wait for the magma elementals to approach. When sufficiently close, players can [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pull pull] the magma elementals onto Qadim as the squad is fighting him and have them be cleaved down. Without the shield, the lava elementals should be cleaved downed without much effort. Position correctly, a single {{Skill|Temporal Curtain}} can pull two or three magma elementals into Qadim (depending on the phase).
 
 
 
 
 
<big>'''Qadim'''</big>
 
 
 
Once the Pyre Guardians are dead, the group can return to Qadim. While he can be damaged as soon as he returns to the center of the platform, the {{Tooltip|Protection}} and {{Tooltip|Resolution}} make this inefficient. Qadim will cycle through the same attack pattern as before: <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52814" title="Flame Wave" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52614" title="Fire Dance" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>
 
 
 
Following this, Qadim will use a new attack '''Big Hit'''.
 
 
 
 
 
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Big Hit'''</div>
 
<div class="row" style="background:#171717;border-bottom:1px solid #292929;">
 
<div class="col-md-6" style="width:350px;padding:1rem;border-right:1px solid #111111;">{{#ev:gfycat|personalvalidhypsilophodon|320x240}}</div>
 
<div class="col-md" style="padding:1rem;">
 
Following Fire Dance, Qadim raises his mace as fire races out in front of him, following the line patterns on the tile. A moment later the fire returns to Qadim and he slams his mace down, dealing extreme damage and knocking players back as a shockwave erupts from the point of impact. The shockwave can be jumped as well as blocked or evaded, but note that the impact point (directly in front of Qadim) cannot be jumped.
 
</div></div>
 
 
 
 
 
Qadim will then repeat the sequence.
 
 
 
 
 
<div style="padding:0.5rem;text-align:center;background:#1d1d1d;color:#fff;border-bottom:1px solid #111111;border-top:1px solid #292929;">'''Riposte'''</div>
 
<div class="row" style="background:#171717;border-bottom:1px solid #292929;">
 
<div class="col-md-6" style="width:350px;padding:1rem;border-right:1px solid #111111;">{{#ev:gfycat|sorrowfulentireleafwing|320x240}}</div>
 
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After the second use of <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52310" title="Big Hit" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, Qadim will spin, summoning multiple Infernos and then begin charging a powerful attack. He gains a defiance bar and a buff called [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Parry_(effect) Parry] that absorbs all incoming damage. If not broken, Qadim hits the platform with an explosive attack that deals extreme damage and knocks players away.
 
</div></div>
 
 
 
 
 
After <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52265" title="Risposte" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, Qadim will start his pattern from the beginning. If a group has sufficient DPS they could ignore the {{Tooltip|Stability}} pyre and trust in their ability to phase Qadim before <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52265" title="Risposte" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> occurs. Alternatively, the group could bring a large amount of [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon#Skills_that_remove_boons boon removal], or boon denial such as {{Skill|Winds of Disenchantment}} in order to continually remove {{Tooltip|Stability}} from Qadim while the defiance bar is active.
 
 
 
 
 
<big>'''Apocalypse Bringer (66%)'''</big>
 
 
 
Once Qadim reaches 66% health, he will return to his initial position and both the elemental kiter(s) and menagerie team will need to resume their roles. Everyone else can return to the location they fought the hydra and prepare for the next legendary creature, the [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Apocalypse_Bringer Apocalypse Bringer].
 
 
 
Players should be ready as the Apocalypse Bringer will immediately need to be CC’d in order to prevent it summoning [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Destroyer_Troll destroyer trolls] near all players (including the kiter(s), but excluding those in the menagerie). At the same time, three [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Reaper_of_Flesh Reapers of Flesh] will spawn nearby and move towards players. As the reapers can deal a lot of damage if left alive, it is common to have everyone stack inside the Apocalypse Bringer’s hitbox in order to bring the reapers as close together as possible then break their defiance bars and kill them. Once this is done, players should move out of the hitbox so they are not hit by the Apocalypse Bringer’s attacks.
 
 
 
The Apocalypse Bringer’s attack pattern is:
 
 
 
:<span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52054" title="Summon" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51759" title="Wave of Force" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51759" title="Wave of Force" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52330" title="Seismic Stomp" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51759" title="Wave of Force" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51759" title="Wave of Force" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51923" title="Shattered Earth" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51759" title="Wave of Force" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51759" title="Wave of Force" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>.
 
 
 
After this it will repeat the pattern. The second time <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52054" title="Summon" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> is used, players inside its hitbox <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52281" title="Swap" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> to Qadim's location. All players should be wary of <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52330" title="Seismic Stomp" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> and <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51923" title="Shattered Earth" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> as they both cause shockwaves that everyone will need to avoid.
 
 
 
If the Apocalyse Bringer is left alone it will use <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52583" title="Throw Minion" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> at players.
 
 
 
As before, once the menagerie team reach the legendary creature the lamp can be destroyed to release a [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Legendary_Ice_Elemental Legendary Ice Elemental]. This will do 80% of the Apocalypse Bringer’s maximum health as damage, in addition to stunning it. After this it will enrage and begin its rotation from the start, meaning there will be another defiance bar to break.
 
 
 
After the Apocalypse Bringer is killed, a second Pyre Guardian phase will begin. It proceeds exactly as before, except that the formation of the platform is now different and the Pyre Guardian's locations have moved anticlockwise.
 
 
 
After the Pyre Guardians, players can engage Qadim once more. This phase proceeds identically to the first with the added complication that there is a large gap in the platform behind Qadim. This makes it more difficult to flank, and makes the magma elementals more dangerous as their knockback can fling a player off the platform. Furthermore, the gap causes one group of elementals to take slightly longer to arrive, meaning that additional pulls will be needed if the group is pulling the magma elementals into Qadim.
 
 
 
 
 
<big>'''Wyverns (33%)'''</big>
 
 
 
One Qadim reaches 33% health, the lamp releases its final creatures – two legendary wyverns. This necessitates that two players are now tanking the creatures. With the third menagerie being more dangerous, extra players may need to be send in which further reduces the number of players left to engage the Wyverns.
 
 
 
For this phase, many things are in significantly different locations: Qadim is now on a platform to the south, the Wyverns appear on platforms to the north, and even the lamp appears in a slightly different location (though still near the center). To prevent any foes being left alone it is recommended that players move into position immediately as Qadim phases – if they are quick the kiter(s) can jump between two platforms as they move apart in order to reach Qadim. If the tanks take too long to reach the wyverns, they will begin to use <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52057" title="Fireball" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> at players.
 
 
 
Both wyverns use the same attack pattern:
 
 
 
:<span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52705" title="Tail Swipe" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51958" title="Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52726" title="Fire Breath" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52705" title="Tail Swipe" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51958" title="Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51958" title="Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → '''Special Attack''' → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52428" title="Heavy Landing" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>
 
 
 
The '''special attack''' is the only difference. The Matriarch uses <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52734" title="Wing Buffet" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52726" title="Fire Breath" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>  as its special attack, whereas the Patriarch will gain a defiance bar and attempt to destroy the platform he is on. For this reason it is recommended that only a tank go to the Matriarch at first, while everyone else remains on the Patriarch to ensure that it is always broken. Once Qadim's lamp is broken, the next time the Patriarch attempts to destroy the platform Qadim will <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52281" title="Swap" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> players inside his hitbox to Qadim's location. Following this, <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52281" title="Swap" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> will occur the next time the Matriarch uses <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52734" title="Wing Buffet" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>.
 
 
 
It is important to keep the wyverns facing away from each other, as both <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52726" title="Fire Breath" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> and <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52734" title="Wing Buffet" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> can hit nearby platforms. <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52428" title="Heavy Landing" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> will cause the wyvern to jump to the next platform in the direction of the closest player, and if there is no platform in that direction it will jump to the closest platform not occupied by the other wyvern.
 
 
 
When selecting the second player to tank a wyvern, consider classes with access to blocks or [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stun_break stun breaks] as these will make it much easier. It is actually possible to just walk out of all the wyvern’s attacks, though this is difficult with <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51958" title="Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> as the attack will track the player its targeting. The attack has both sweep and a slam components and avoiding it requires being close to the center of the wyvern’s hitbox and making a quick anti-clockwise movement around the center of the hitbox as the attack begins. It may be better to dodge or block it. Failure to avoid the sweep is very dangerous as it is followed up with a slam from the wing that deals heavy damage. The slam component can be avoided just by standing inside the wyvern’s hitbox, but the sweep component will knock a player out of the wyvern’s hitbox, making a stunbreak very useful. Due to the damage caused by the sweep component, {{Tooltip|Stability}} is not a suitable defense against <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51958" title="Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>.
 
 
 
Once the menagerie team have reached the end, a player will need to leave the wyvern in order to return to the center of the arena and destroy the lamp. This will also return Zommoros to the platform. He will move to each of the wyverns in turn (first the Patriarch, then the Matriarch) and attack them three times, dealing 25% of their maximum health as damage for a total of 75%. As with previous legendary creatures, the wyverns will aggro on Zommoros when he appears which makes them rapidly change the direction they are facing, making it difficult to avoid their attacks. While trying to avoid the wyverns’ attacks, players should bear in mind that <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52587" title="Inferno" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> still occurs regularly,  so they should remain between the center and edge of the platform if they can.
 
 
 
Once Zommoros leaves, players should finish off the Patriarch, then move to the Matriarch and kill her too. As both the wyverns will be enraged at this point, the second tank may wish to let the main tank take over when possible.
 
 
 
After attacking both wyverns, Zommoros will move to Qadim and the lava elementals will stop spawning. This means the kiter(s) can move away to join the main group and help with killing the wyverns.
 
 
 
 
 
<big>'''Jumping Puzzle'''</big>
 
 
 
Once both wyverns are dead, Qadim will begin to destroy platforms underneath the group and everyone must run along the remaining platforms towards Zommoros. Zommoros has a protective bubble called <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52320" title="Aid of the Water Djinn" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> that heals and cures conditions, and his platform slowly moves into position facing Qadim on the other side of the Mythwright Cauldron. A series of platforms, some rotating, appear ahead of the squad. They split into two separate paths, each with a Pyre Guardian at the end.
 
 
 
The group can either split into two groups and make their way to both pyres simultaneously or move as one group first to one pyre, then past Zommoros to the second, before returning to fight Qadim. This section can be simplified greatly with the preemptive use of {{Skill|Portal Entre}} to skip a large section of the jumping puzzle. In addition, the DPS requirements for skipping the {{Tooltip|Stability}} pyre (north) and only killing the {{Tooltip|Resolution}} pyre (south) are much less than they were during the previous phases so that may be worth considering.
 
 
 
Whichever approach is taken, players will need to watch out for <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52587" title="Inferno" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> and <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52030" title="Incineration Orb" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> as they travel.
 
 
 
The image below details the formation of platforms throughout the encounter, in addition to useful {{Skill|Portal Entre}} locations.
 
 
 
[[file:Qadim Platforms.png|class=img-fluid]]
 
 
 
 
 
<big>'''Qadim'''</big>
 
 
 
Qadim’s attack patterns are very similar to before:
 
 
 
:<span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52814" title="Flame Wave" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="51718" title="Flame Slash" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52310" title="Big Hit" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>
 
 
 
After <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52310" title="Big Hit" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>, Qadim will rush to a different corner of the platform, and start his attack pattern again. This time though, Qadim will replace <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52310" title="Big Hit" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> with <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52614" title="Fire Dance" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> → <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52265" title="Risposte" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span>. He will then rush to a different corner and start his attack pattern from the beginning. If the squad will not break Qadim's defiance bar during <span data-armory-embed="skills" data-armory-size="24" data-armory-inline-text="wiki" data-armory-ids="52265" title="Risposte" style="display: inline-block; min-height: 24px; max-height: 24px; overflow: hidden; vertical-align: bottom;"></span> then as a last resort they may flee to Zommoros' bubble for protection.
 
 
 
Upon reaching 17% health, Qadim will jump to the last remaining platform and repeat the same attack patterns though he will not move again. Two magma elementals will spawn with groups of lava elementals and move towards Qadim on this platform, but they can be dealt with in much the same way as before.
 
 
 
''Thanks to Linus, who made the Qadim images for the Guild Wars 2 Wiki.''
 

Revision as of 22:02, 9 February 2023

Introduction to Raiding

Overview

This guide aims to be an introduction to raiding in Guild Wars 2. It will cover the various roles that classes will commonly fulfill within a raid, and how these roles were settled on. For new groups, there will be an explanation of how to set up a squad for an encounter and provide some good builds for new players. If there are unfamiliar terms, the glossary may be of assistance.

Disclaimer: This guide is aimed at beginner-intermediate level raiders. The “rules” set out here will often have exceptions, but these exceptions will almost always apply to high-skill groups. In the interest of brevity, these have been omitted under the assumption that groups to which the exceptions would apply will already be aware of them.


Roles

When tackling raid encounters, one of the key ingredients to a successful kill is having an effective team composition. Like many RPGs, Guild Wars 2 features distinct roles similar to the “Holy Trinity”. However, Guild Wars 2 differs slightly in that it features a soft trinity of Damage, Support and Control. These map onto the traditional roles of DPS, Healing, and Tanking, but with some additional functions.


Damage

Deals damage. Damage (or DPS) is ultimately the most important, and focused role within a raid and the majority of actions of Support and Control players will be aimed at enabling the DPS players to do their job. The design of attributes in Guild Wars 2 is such that damage roles will focus on either power or condition damage. The two types differentiate themselves as follows (with some exceptions):

Power - bursts damage in a short duration and hence suits fights with short phases. A few bosses also have low toughness, which strongly benefits power builds.
Condition - takes some time to ramp up their damage, but deals more long-term and so are suited to fights with longer phases. Some condition builds apply Confusion Confusion or Torment Torment, which deal extra damage when the target activates skills or stands still. Builds that inflict these conditions are able to deal damage very quickly on suitable bosses.

The best DPS classes will vary from encounter to encounter and group to group, so there is a lot of variety within this role.


Support

Support comes in two main flavors - boon support and healing. These flavors are not mutually exclusive.

Boon Support - provides boons to the squad.
Healing - keeps the squad alive.

Support players are often tasked with handling mechanics in fights, as they typically have downtime in which they do not need to be healing or applying boons.

As will be discussed in this guide, some supports are significantly more effective than other options, so many groups will run the same core group of supports on most encounters.


Control

As a role, control usually manifests as the tank. It also refers to control effects (CC), and while this is rarely a dedicated role in itself it can inform the optimal builds fulfilling the other roles.

Tanking in raids is very binary - there will be a single requirement, and whichever player fulfils that requirement will be the tank. It is most common for the tank to be the player with the highest toughness stat, though other encounters have the tanking based on proximity, randomly assigned, use of specific Special Action Keys, or have no tank at all. It is extremely rare that control will be a role in itself, as will be explained below the functions of control are usually handled by Damage or Support players.

As such, the role of tank will usually be assigned to the most suitable class of those the squad has already taken to the encounter.

A kiter may be considered a sub-role of tank. Rather than control the boss’s aggro, they will typically be the target of a particular mechanic, though the exact requirements of the role vary greatly depending on the encounter.


Role Fundamentals

This section covers two fundamental goals that define how the previously described roles are best covered. While the two goals may seem contradictory, both must be considered when defining builds or compositions.


Role Specialization

One of the biggest stumbling blocks when moving from open world to raids is the need to unlearn much of what Guild Wars 2 teaches players while leveling: That classes are built to be self-sufficient, and able to perform all three roles at once.

Team-based game modes such as raids promote role specialization (particularly in DPS players), as focusing on one particular role will be much more effective than multiple players all trying to fill multiple roles.

Put clearly - a player on a damage role is there to deal damage. Sacrificing that damage to improve personal healing or survivability lowers the effectiveness of the entire group, as the lower the damage, the longer the boss will take to kill. The longer the boss is alive, the more mechanics will occur that have the chance to cause a wipe. With Guild Wars 2’s active defense there are practically no mechanics that cannot be avoided with skill, mitigated through encounter mechanics, or out-healed by healers.

Team members must be trusted to fulfill their roles, and not plan for failure by pre-emptively covering for others' mistakes. Adjusting a build to be less specialized should be a reaction to failure rather than in anticipation of it.

This is the reason why it is often recommended to run a “meta” build. These builds are optimized to perform their roles in the most effective ways possible. In cases where builds have options to fulfill other roles as well, this will have been chosen such that it has the minimum impact on their primary role, with the maximum gain of the supplementary role.

As previously stated, of the three roles damage is the most common to focus utterly on just one role.


Role Compression

Where damage is concerned, more is always better. With support, however, a build can provide more healing or boons than is necessary. Where this is the case, supports will often partially fill other roles, though their priority should always be the primary role.

A good approach to support builds (and team compositions in general) is: “As offensive as possible, as defensive as necessary”.

Tanking is almost always a “compressed” role. Many classes in Guild Wars 2 come with sufficient active defense to survive as tank (aided by healers) without the need to build for survivability at all, and so the tank role will be fulfilled by a damage or support (typically a support).


Group Requirements

Aside from the specific requirements required for each encounter, there are a number of common effects that groups should seek to provide on (nearly) every encounter.


Essential Boons

One of the key support aspects that every group should fulfill is providing certain essential boons. These boons are considered essential because of the huge damage increase each provides - if a class could provide just one of these boons to the group it would be worth taking instead of a DPS player even if it did literally nothing else. In practice though, most boon supports can provide multiple boons.

Might Might - Might provides a massive damage boost to both power and condition damage builds.
Quickness Quickness - Quickness speeds up (almost) all actions in the game, allowing players to get more skills into a smaller window of time. This is of huge benefit to all players.
Alacrity Alacrity - Lowers the cooldown of all skills. Similar to quickness, this allows more skills to be activated within a smaller window of time and is of huge benefit to all players.
Fury Fury - Increases the chance to critically hit by 20%. Almost every power build will require fury to reach 100% crit chance. In addition to the damage boost, many builds have on-crit effects that form part of their rotation and it is especially important to those builds. Even condition damage builds frequently have on-crit effects that make the boon very strong.

A note on boon strip

At the start of a raid encounter, support classes should begin providing their essential buffs as soon as possible. However, all boons will be removed from players shortly after the encounter begins (varies from encounter to encounter, but usually within three seconds). This means that players providing boons need to wait until after this boon strip occurs before they begin.


Additional Buffs

Non-essential boons

The above boons are essential for every damage class, and should always be provided. Some builds rely on additional boons, and these should be provided when you have such builds. Generally, some amount of these boons will be provided by the class in question, but the higher uptime the better.

Swiftness Swiftness - Swiftness provides a damage boost to both power Weaver and Warriors using the Discipline traitline (both core and elite specializations).
Vigor Vigor - Vigor provides bonus condition damage to Mirage and increases the damage potential of both Daredevil and Mirage as their rotations involve frequent dodging.
Resolution Resolution - Power guardian builds (and elite specializations) gain multiple benefits from having Resolution.
Regeneration Regeneration - Mesmer builds that use the Chaos traitline gain multiple benefits from having Regeneration.


Defensive Boons

In addition to the above boons, there are a few that can be very useful in the right situations. Aegis and Stability in particular are still somewhat rare, so their presence in a build can be very potent.

Aegis Aegis - Blocks a single incoming attack. Providing this to your subgroup allows them to ignore certain mechanics that might otherwise require a dodge, which can result in higher damage and/or less chance of death when used at the right time.
Protection Protection - Reduces incoming strike damage by 33%. This is a massive boost to survivability that can easily make the difference between an attack one-shotting a player or not. Resolution Resolution works in a similar way against conditions, but the vast majority of damage will be strike damage.
Stability Stability - Works similarly to Aegis Aegis in that it allows for the ignoring of some mechanics. While it doesn't prevent damage, you can have multiple stacks on you at once, preventing multiple incoming control effects.


Essential conditions

While many classes benefit from particular conditions being on the target, the only truly essential condition is Vulnerability Vulnerability. Many builds (particularly power) provide enough Vulnerability Vulnerability to keep it capped on a boss, but in the event Vulnerability Vulnerability is not capped some adjustments will be required.

Druids can provide very high vulnerability by replacing Skirmishing with Marksmanship, and using both the Remorseless trait and a Storm Spirit to repeatedly trigger Opening Strike.


Pulls/Cleave

An aspect of role assignment that is often underappreciated. Around half the raid encounters feature enemies or objects that will spawn near the group and can either cause serious damage to the squad or waste the squad’s time dealing with them. Depending on the encounter the simplest solution is to use skills that pull enemies into the boss where they will be quickly killed by the DPS, or skills that hit targets over a large area so that enemies or objects will be defeated without the need to take focus off the boss.

Numerous skills can fulfil this function, but two in particular are worth mentioning due to their potency:

Temporal Curtain - A Chronomancer can take an offhand focus to access Temporal Curtain. The curtain itself can be placed at 900 range from the Chronomancer and activated a second time to pull up to five targets within 600 range to the centre of the curtain. Unlike other options, the pull is not restricted by line of sight, can pull to remote locations, and affects a larger AoE than most alternatives.
Epidemic - A condition necromancer can take Epidemic as one of their utilities. This is a low-cooldown skill (when traited) that can hit up to 5 targets within 900 range of a primary target, copying conditions to them. With sufficient conditions on the main target, this is enough to kill the majority of additional enemies, thus offering an incredible amount of cleave without ever needing the necromancer to take focus off attacking the boss.

While the above options are strong in their own right, they can also be supplemented by additional skills. The following are worth mentioning as they are taken by support classes that many groups will already have in the group.

Blazing Edge - Firebrand will normally take an axe for DPS or to provide Fury Fury. This skill is a moderate 600 range pull on three targets.
Path of Scars - A Ranger (typically a Druid) can take an offhand axe to gain this skill, which will pull three targets towards the player. The skill has a range of 1200 but will only pull targets 450 units as the axe returns, and is somewhat slow-moving.

While the above two skills are not strong on their own, they can be very effective when combined with Temporal Curtain - either by using them to pull foes closer after Temporal Curtain groups them up or by pulling additional foes that may have been missed by Temporal Curtain.

Scorched Earth - If the squad has a Condi Berserker, then their longbow burst skill is Scorched Earth - a large 1,200 range AoE that deals a large amount of burning and can be used very frequently while Berserk is active. The AoE is divided into 5 separate sections, each of which has its own target cap, so the skill could theoretically hit up to 25 targets. The best use of this skill is for the Berserker to line themselves up so that the boss is between them and the target(s) to be cleaved. Not only will this allow for effective long-range cleave, but hitting multiple targets will provide higher stacks of Furious, making this a DPS increase!


Squad Composition

All these factors will combine to define the structure of a squad. The vast majority of boons affect five targets. So there will need to be at least two sources to cover every player.

The examples below cover the most common options (at the time of writing). Other options may also be viable, particularly in regards to Might Might and Fury Fury.


Quickness

There are seven reliable sources of Quickness Quickness in the game - Catalysts, Chronomancers, Firebrands, Harbingers, Herald, Scrappers and Warriors (any elite specialization). Daredevil or Thief can also provide Quickness Quickness on raid encounters with the Detonate Plasma stolen skill (currently Matthias, Keep Construct (from the Projections), Mursaat Overseer, and Adina).

Catalyst deals a lot of damage, and can provide more quickness by adjusting their rotation. However, their only source of Quickness Quickness comes from a single skill every ~11 seconds, and missing it will leave a player completely without Quickness Quickness until the next application.

Chronomancer brings the option for excellent pulls and is a very effective tank due to the high amount of active defense and the ability to provide boons at range, meaning that they can be further from the group. However, their damage is lower than other options and Quickness Quickness generation relies on constant clone generation and shattering.

Firebrand’s Quickness Quickness is limited to a narrow cone and a small AoE around the Firebrand, and they do not have as strong a pull as a Chronomancer. However, they do good damage with a relatively simple rotation and also apply Quickness Quickness frequently and instantaneously, making them very reliable.

Harbinger is similar to firebrand in that it applies shorter duration Quickness Quickness more frequently and so are generally a reliable source. Unfortunately they rely on staying in shroud for long durations for good uptime, and taking too much damage in this mode can kick them out early. They also have a smaller boon application radius than other options.

Herald deals good damage with a rather fast-paced rotation, and brings a huge amount of supplementary boons - including high Might Might generation, which is a rarity in Quickness Quickness supports. More importantly, they have access to Revenant legends such as Jalis that can provide near-permanent Stability Stability or Ventari, that has a long-duration mobile projectile block. Finally, they can bring a staff in their off-set which gives access to Surge of the Mists - the most powerful CC in the game.

Scrapper provides AoE Quickness Quickness around it at regular intervals, making it more reliable than Chronomancer. However, it cannot provide boons at range, and has limited additional utility outside of Superspeed Superspeed.

Any Warrior specialization can provide Quickness Quickness via banners and the Discipline traitline. They are average in terms of reliability, DPS and utility, but they have a key benefit in that their banners can be dropped at 600 range. Once the AoE is taken into account this means that they can hit players up to 960 units away, which is over twice what any other build can manage (except Catalyst). When you also take into account that they only need to be used once every ~25s, this allows warrior to easily provide permanent Quickness Quickness uptime to their subgroup while dealing with mechanics off-stack.


Alacrity

There are eight reliable sources of Alacrity Alacrity in the game - Chronomancers, Mechanists, Mirages, Rangers (technically any ranger spec but Druid is most common), Renegades, Specters, Tempests and Willbenders.

Chronomancer has to run a very specific build and high boon duration in order to maintain Alacrity Alacrity, but it can provide boons at range and brings mesmer's powerful utility skills, which can be useful in some groups.

Druid can only really be run as a healer, but brings a great variety of boons and can provide more healing at range than other options. For a DPS alacrity ranger build, Untamed can abuse Fervent Force to get away with no boon duration and only two spirits, but the rotation is very difficult to pull off and provides almost no additional boons.

Even when focussing on damage, Mechanist provides a decent amount of incidental barrier, which can enable some groups to run with fewer healers. It also has access to some an on-demand source of Aegis Aegis and Stability Stability (albeit on a long cooldown), which can make it very potent on the right encounters.

The utility of Mirage is limited, but it is also capable of maintaining permanent Might Might on the squad, and applies a significant amount of Confusion Confusion which makes it a very strong DPS in its own right on certain bosses.

Renegade has many of the same benefits as Herald, but otherwise deals low damage and provides few additional boons in comparison so other Alacrity Alacrity options.

Similarly, Specter also provides a good amount of incidental barrier and has the option to target specific allies to support them directly, which can be very helpful for tanks in particular. With Well of Bounty, they can provide a good range of boons, and deal a good amount of damage while doing so.

Tempests bring a wide variety of boons even when on DPS variants, but the necessity to complete long overloads to provide alacrity makes them struggle on encounters that may disrupt their rotation.

Willbender is the weakest option of the bunch. Its damage is average, and Alacrity Alacrity generation depends on constantly hitting the boss, making it significantly less versatile than other options. As such, it is by far the least common option used.


Might and Fury

Given that two boon supports are already required in each subgroup, per the rule of role compression it makes sense that between them they also provide Might Might and Fury Fury. With so many options it can be difficult to know how to cover everything - to that end, the table below covers the options along with the approximate Might Might, Fury Fury and Protection Protection they offer. The goal should be to pick a pair of supports that covers all four of the essential boons. Protection Protection is included as it is relatively common, and always useful.


What does this table mean Toggle

The table below shows the approximate boon uptimes each spec can provide in an ideal situation, colour-coded for convenience. In the case of Might Might and Fury Fury, most DPS classes have some amount of self-generation so cases where the provision should be sufficient are indicated too - at the time of writing this only applies to Catalyst Might Might and firebrand Fury Fury.

The assumed boon duration is included to allow you to estimate how provision would increase as you take more boon duration. The presented values are for DPS alacrity builds (where applicable), but where the heal variant has entirely new sources of boons they have been given a separate row (as in the case of Firebrand and Mechanist). Other heal builds simply provide more of the stated boons, or are niche enough that they have been omitted in the interest of readability.

The final column shows details on which extra boons the build provides. The focus is kept on boons here, as attempting to include details on all the benefits a class might provide would quickly cause the size of the table to balloon. See the individual build pages for details like this.


Boon Table

Quickness / Alacrity Might Fury Protection Assumed BD Notes / Additional boons
Catalyst Quickness 24 100% 0% 12%
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  • You can trade ~11 might for ~80% Protection Protection by using Deploy Jade Sphere (Earth) instead of Deploy Jade Sphere (Fire) on the minor loop
  • Provides ~80% Swiftness Swiftness by attuning to air
  • Provides ~45% Resolution Resolution and ~50% Vigor Vigor from water sphere
Chronomancer Either 3 65% 0% 10%
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  • Echo of Memory can be used to generate a small amount of Protection Protection
  • Provides ~20% Swiftness Swiftness with Tides of Time
Druid Alacrity 25 100% 100% 100%
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  • Provides ~100% Regeneration Regeneration
  • Provides ~100% Swiftness Swiftness from Call of the Wild
  • Can provide ~100% Vigor Vigor if bringing Sun Spirit
  • Can provide on-demand Aegis Aegis with a White Tiger, and Stability Stability with Glyph of Equality and/or Glyph of the Stars
Firebrand Quickness 7 80% 45% 20%
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  • Provides ~55% Resolution Resolution with Mantra of Solace
  • Has on-demand access to Aegis Aegis and Stability Stability from Tomes and utility skills
Firebrand (heal) Quickness 25 100% 100% 92%
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Harbinger Quickness 12 100% 0% 20%
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  • Provides ~55% Swiftness Swiftness with Elixir of Anguish
Herald Quickness 15 100% 100% 25%
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  • Provides ~100% Swiftness Swiftness from Facet of Elements
  • Can provide high Stability Stability uptime by taking Legendary Dwarf Stance
  • Can provide significantly more Might Might with some build adjustments
Mechanist Alacrity 25 100% 35% 50%
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  • Using mace brings high Vigor Vigor uptime and some barrier
Mechanist (heal) Alacrity 25 100% 100% 100%
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Mirage Alacrity 25 60% 0% 17%
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Renegade Alacrity 0 0% 80% 85%
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  • Can provide ~16 Might Might by sacrificing a bit of damage so you have the energy for Heroic Command
  • Can provide ~55% Fury Fury by taking Assassin's Presence, but it is DPS loss on what is already a low DPS class
Scrapper Quickness 7 60% 35% 30%
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  • Provides ~100% Superspeed Superspeed
  • Can provide on-demand Stability Stability by replacing Shredder Gyro with Bulwark Gyro
Specter Alacrity 14 100% 0% 57%
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  • Provides ~100% Swiftness Swiftness with Siphon
  • Provides ~100% Vigor Vigor
  • Well of Bounty provides a small amount of Stability Stability and Resistance Resistance, but you need to use it off cooldown so it is unreliable
Tempest Alacrity 25 0%* 100% 57%
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  • Does not generate Fury Fury but can extend it on allies
  • Can provide permanent Swiftness Swiftness with Cyclone and "Eye of the Storm!"
  • Can provide on-demand Aegis Aegis or Stability Stability with "Aftershock!" or "Eye of the Storm!"
Untamed Alacrity 0 55% 0% 16%
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  • With some adjustments to the build it can bring a lot of Might Might as well
Warrior Quickness 7 100% 0% 0%
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  • Spellbreaker generates an extra ~5 Might Might
  • Provides ~45% Resistance Resistance and some Stability Stability with Banner of Tactics but you need to use it off cooldown so it isn't reliable
  • Can provide Aegis Aegis and Barrier with Banner of Defense but you need to use it off cooldown so it isn't reliable
Willbender Alacrity 3 100% 0% 20%
Click for more details Toggle


Healers

Depending on the boss, a squad may desire multiple healers. While groups should always be aiming to have as few healers as possible, as many as necessary should be taken.

In general, you want your boon supports to be the healers, but special mention must go to Scourge - while it has low healing and provides practically no boons, it has the strongest access to barrier in the game. Barrier effectively prevents the targets from taking damage and can even allow the group to survive some attacks that would otherwise instantly down players. Scourge also has access to Transfusion, which will teleport downed players to your location and begin reviving them. This enables Scourge to save a group from situations that would otherwise be a wipe.


A note on reviving

It is important to note that reviving players from downed state is everyone’s responsibility - letting a player die because a DPS player won’t break their rotation will result in much lower DPS overall.

There are a few exceptions:

  • If reviving the player would get other players killed.
  • The tank should not revive as they will turn the boss towards the rest of the group, making matters worse.
  • Healers are well suited to reviving as healing % modifiers affect the speed of reviving. However, in cases where there is only one healer, the loss of healing on the remaining players can easily lead to more people being downed. With multiple healers, this is less risky, but you should still avoid having all healers reviving.

Of course, everyone should still revive as a last resort if no-one else will.


A note on buff priority

Generally speaking, boons apply on the following priority: Subgroup -> Proximity. This means that a five-target buff will be applied to members of the subgroup within range, and if this is fewer than five, it will then be applied to the closest player regardless of subgroup. Similarly, if there are more than five targets within the subgroup in range, it will apply to the five closest players to the source of the boon.

Healing and condition cleansing is slightly different: a healing skill will not target a player that is at full health, nor will a condition cleanse target a player with no conditions (there are some exceptions, typically when the skill also provides a boon), and will instead apply to the highest priority target that can be healed. This means healing will “overflow” to other subgroups, though the healer’s subgroup will still receive more.


A note on stacking

There are very few abilities in Guild Wars 2 that target a specific character for boons or heals, most are instead applied in an AoE according to the priorities described above. This means that groups will “stack” near one another to ensure that supports can hit as many players as possible.

In general, melee weapons deal more damage than ranged options and so the result is that the stack will want to be in melee range where possible. Therefore, in the vast majority of encounters the tank will face the boss in one direction while everyone else stacks directly behind it. This also ensures that players take less damage, as attacks aimed at the tank usually cleave.

Because of this, the benefits of ranged weapons are somewhat minimized and even classes that are capable of dealing all their damage at range are still encouraged to be in melee.


Boon Support Pairings

As most heal builds can easily provide Might Might and Fury Fury, groups that run two healers don't really need to worry too much about composition beyond the basics. On many encounters this is overkill (or the group may want to run something like a heal scourge instead), so the subgroup without a healer will need to make sure that there is a good pairing.

To restrict the options a bit, we will only look at pairings that provide good Protection Protection uptime (or good barrier). This adds a safety net that will be useful for groups that are used to having two healers.

While Specter does not provide Protection Protection it does provide a good amount of Barrier, which might serve the same function. In cases where this is the only defensive buff in the group, it will be indicated with an asterisk.

Quickness Pairings

Quickness Alacrity
Catalyst Tempest, Renegade, Specter
Chronomancer / Warrior Tempest
Firebrand Mechanist, Tempest
Harbinger Specter*, Tempest
Herald Mechanist, Mirage, Specter, Tempest
Scrapper Mechanist, Tempest

Alacrity Pairings

Alacrity Quickness
Mechanist, Mirage Herald, Firebrand, Scrapper
Renegade Catalyst
Specter Catalyst*, Herald, Harbinger*
Tempest Anything
Chronomancer, Untamed, Willbender These options are lacking in boons, so they will generally need to be paired with a healer. Alternatively, with some adjustments a Herald can likely provide enough Might.


The tables above should suffice in the majority of cases, but there are a few classes that require specific boons to function optimally, creating further considerations:


Mesmers running the Chaos traitline require high Regeneration Regeneration uptime. Most healers are capable of providing this to at least their own subgroup, but in the case of single-healer setups they should be placed in the same subgroup as the healer. Heralds and Mechanists using Mace also provide a good amount of Regeneration Regeneration.

Next, Dragonhunters require high Resolution Resolution uptime, which is best provided by other Guardians using greatswords. Hence Dragonhunters should usually be placed together or split evenly between the two subgroups if there are too many. Firebrands and power Renegades also provide a lot.

Scrappers and hammer Spellbreakers benefit from Stability Stability. Though this is typically only used on-demand, Alacrity Mechanists and Specters, and Quickness Warriors generate some passively.

Weavers and Warriors running Discipline - Both of these classes get a significant damage buff from Swiftness Swiftness. Most healers can provide it, as can Catalysts, Heralds, Specters and Tempest.

Finally, Vindicators, Daredevils and Mirage all want Vigor Vigor. This is typically provided by healers, but can also come from Mechanists using mace, Specters and other Vindicators.


Simple Raid Builds

For a selection of recommended builds for beginners check out:

Meta.webp
Simple Raid Builds
Recommended builds for those new to raiding


For our complete list of builds, see the Raid Builds Page.


Raid Guides

Hopefully this guide has provided an understanding of the considerations that go into forming a raid team. Both this and the guides below aim to be written in such a way as to be relevant irrespective of the current balance. They provide details on the roles that are required for each encounter and together with this guide should be enough to build compositions for each encounter that work for your group.

Mini Vale Guardian.webp
Raid Wing 1 - Spirit Vale
Guides for Vale Guardian, Spirit Woods, Gorseval the Multifarious, and Sabetha the Saboteur
Mini Slothasor.webp
Raid Wing 2 - Salvation Pass
Guides for Slothasor, Bandit Trio, and Matthias Gabrel
Mini Keep Construct.webp
Raid Wing 3 - Stronghold of the Faithful
Guides for Siege the Stronghold, Keep Construct, Twisted Castle, and Xera
Mini Mursaat Overseer.webp
Raid Wing 4 - Bastion of the Penitent
Guides for Cairn the Indomitable, Mursaat Overseer, Samarog, and Deimos
Mini Dhuum.webp
Raid Wing 5 - Hall of Chains
Guides for Soulless Horror, River of Souls, Statues of Grenth, and The Voice in the Void
Mini Qadim.webp
Raid Wing 6 - Mythwright Gambit
Guides for Conjured Amalgamate, Twin Largos, and Qadim
Mini Qadim the Peerless.webp
Raid Wing 7 - The Key of Ahdashim
Guides for Cardinal Sabir, Cardinal Adina, and Qadim the Peerless

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